THE  LIBRARY 

OF 

THE  UNIVERSITY 
OF  CALIFORNIA 

LOS  ANGELES 


WORKS,  with  an  Introduction  and  Portrait.     Five  volumes, 

crown  Svo,  each <2.oo 

The  set 10-00 

POEMS.  Complete.  Diamond  Edition i  .co 

THE  SAME.  Household  Edition.  i2mo  $2.00..  .gilt.. .  2.50 
THE  SAME.  Red-Line  Edition.  Illustrated.  Small  4to  2.50 

EAST  AND  WEST  POEMS.  i6mo 1.50 

THE  L  UCK  OF  ROA  RING  CA  MP,  and  other  Sketches. 

i6mo  1.50 

THE  SAME.  "Riverside  Aldine  Series."  i6mo i.co 

CONDENSED  NOVELS.  Illustrated.  i6mo 1.50 

MRS.  SKAGGS'S  HUSBANDS,  and  other  Sketches. 

i6mo  i  .50 

TALES  OF  THE  ARGONAUTS,  and  other  Stories. 

i6mo 1.50 

THANKFUL  BLOSSOM.  iSmo 1.25 

TWO  MEN  OF  SANDY  BAR.  A  Play.  iSmo i.oo 

THE  STORY  OF  A  MINE.  iSmo i.oo 

DRIFT  FROM  TWO  SHORES.  iSmo i .25 

THE  TWINS  OF  TABLE  MOUNTAIN,  and  other 

Sketches.  iSmo 1.25 

FLIP,  AND  FOUND  A  T  BLAZING  STA-R.  iSmo. .  i.oo 

IN  THE  CARQUINEZ  WOODS.  iSmo 1.00 

ON  THE  FRONTIER.  iSmo i.oo 

BY  SHORE  AND  SEDGE.  iSmo i.oo 

MARUJA.  iSmo 1.00 

*#*  For  sale  by  all  Booksellers.    Sent  by  mail,  post-paid,  on 
receipt  of  price  by  tlie  Publishers, 

HOUGHTON,  MIFFLIN  &  CO.,  BOSTON,  MASS. 


MARUJA 


BY 

BRET  HARTE 


BOSTON  AND   NEW  YORK 

HOUGHTON,  MIFFLIN  AND  COMPANY 

&l)t  St'foerstoe  press,  ffiambrtDge 


Copyright,  1835, 
BY  BEET  HAKTE. 

All  rights  reserved. 


The  Riverside  Press,  Cambridge  f 
Electrotyped  and  printed  by  H.  0.  Houghton  &  Co. 


PS 


MAKUJA. 


CHAPTER  I. 

MORNING  was  breaking  on  the  high  road 
to  San  Jose.  The  long  lines  of  dusty,  level 
track  were  beginning  to  extend  their  van- 
ishing point  in  the  growing  light ;  on  either 
side  the  awakening  fields  of  wheat  and  oats 
were  stretching  out  and  broadening  to  the 
sky.  In  the  east  and  south  the  stars  were 
receding  before  the  coming  day ;  in  the  west 
a  few  still  glimmered,  caught  among  the 
bosky  hills  of  the  Canada  del  Raimundo, 
where  night  seemed  to  linger.  Thither  some 
obscure,  low-flying  birds  were  slowly  wing- 
ing ;  thither  a  gray  coyote,  overtaken  by  the 
morning,  was  awkwardly  limping.  And 

91658 


4  MARUJA. 

thither  a  tramping  wayfarer  turned,  plow- 
ing through  the  dust  of  the  highway  still 
unslaked  by  the  dewless  night,  to  climb  the 
fence  and  likewise  seek  the  distant  cover. 

For  some  moments  man  and  beast  kept 
an  equal  pace  and  gait  with  a  strange  simi- 
larity of  appearance  and  expression ;  the 
coyote  bearing  that  resemblance  to  his  more 
civilized  and  harmless  congener,  the  dog, 
which  the  tramp  bore  to  the  ordinary  pedes- 
trians, but  both  exhibiting  the  same  charac- 
teristics of  lazy  vagabondage  and  semi-law- 
lessness; the  coyote's  slouching  amble  and 
uneasy  stealthiness  being  repeated  in  the 
tramp's  shuffling  step  and  sidelong  glances. 
Both  were  young,  and  physically  vigorous, 
but  both  displayed  the  same  vacillating  and 
awkward  disinclination  to  direct  effort. 
They  continued  thus  half  a  mile  apart  un- 
conscious of  each  other,  until  the  superior 
faculties  of  the  brute  warned  him  of  the 
contiguity  of  aggressive  civilization,  and  he 
cantered  off  suddenly  to  the  right,  fully  five 


MARUJA.  O 

minutes  before  the  barking  of  dogs  caused 
the  man  to  make  a  detour  to  the  left  to  avoid 
entrance  upon  a  cultivated  domain  that  lay 
before  him. 

The  trail  he  took  led  to  one  of  the  scant 
water-courses  that  issued,  half  spent,  from 
the  canada,  to  fade  out  utterly  on  the  hot 
June  plain.  It  was  thickly  bordered  with 
willows  and  alders,  that  made  an  arbored 
and  feasible  path  through  the  dense  woods 
and  undergrowth.  He  continued  along  it  as 
if  aimlessly  ;  stopping  from  time  to  time  to 
look  at  different  objects  in  a  dull  mechanical 
fashion,  as  if  rather  to  prolong  his  useless 
hours,  than  from  any  curious  instinct,  and 
to  occasionally  dip  in  the  unfrequent  pools 
of  water  the  few  crusts  of  bread  he  had 
taken  from  his  pocket.  Even  this  appeared 
to  be  suggested  more  by  coincidence  of  mate- 
rial in  the  bread  and  water,  than  from  the 
promptings  of  hunger.  At  last  he  reached 
a  cup-like  hollow  in  the  hills  lined  with  wild 
clover  and  thick  with  resinous  odors.  Here 


6  MARUJA. 

he  crept  under  a  manzanita-bush  and  dis- 
posed himself  to  sleep.  The  act  showed  he 
was  already  familiar  with  the  local  habits  of 
his  class,  who  used  the  unfailing  dry  starlit 
nights  for  their  wanderings,  and  spent  the 
hours  of  glaring  sunshine  asleep  or  resting 
in  some  wayside  shadow. 

Meanwhile  the  light  quickened,  and  grad- 
ually disclosed  the  form  and  outline  of  the 
adjacent  domain.  An  avenue  cut  through 
a  park-like  wood,  carefully  cleared  of  the 
undergrowth  of  gigantic  ferns  peculiar  to 
the  locality,  led  to  the  entrance  of  the 
Canada.  Here  began  a  vast  terrace  of  lawn, 
broken  up  by  enormous  bouquets  of  flower- 
beds bewildering  in  color  and  profusion, 
from  which  again  rose  the  flowering  vines 
and  trailing  shrubs  that  hid  pillars,  veran- 
da, and  even  the  long  facade  of  a  great 
and  dominant  mansion.  But  the  delicacy 
of  floral  outlines  running  to  the  capitals  of 
columns  and  at  times  mounting  to  the  pedi- 
ment of  the  roof,  the  opulence  of  flashing 


MARUJA.  7 

color  or  the  massing  of  tropical  foliage, 
could  not  deprive  it  of  the  imperious  dignity 
of  size  and  space.  Much  of  this  was  due  to 
the  fact  that  the  original  casa  —  an  adobe 
house  of  no  mean  pretensions,  dating  back 
to  the  early  Spanish  occupation  —  had  been 
kept  intact,  sheathed  in  a  shell  of  dark-red 
wood,  and  still  retaining  its  patio,  or  inner 
court -yard,  surrounded  by  low  galleries, 
while  additions,  greater  in  extent  than  the 
main  building,  had  been  erected  —  not  as 
wings  and  projections,  but  massed  upon  it 
on  either  side,  changing  its  rigid  square  out- 
lines to  a  vague  parallelogram.  While  the 
patio  retained  the  Spanish  conception  of  al 
fresco  seclusion,  a  vast  colonnade  of  veranda 
on  the  southern  side  was  a  concession  to 
American  taste,  and  its  breadth  gave  that 
depth  of  shadow  to  tho  inner  rooms  which 
had  been  lost  in  the  thinner  shell  of  the  new 
erection.  Its  cloistered  gloom  was  lightened 
by  the  red  fires  of  cardinal  flowers  dropping 
from  the  roof,  by  the  yellow  sunshine  of  the 


8  MARUJA. 

jessamine  creeping  up  the  columns,  by  bil- 
lows of  heliotropes  breaking  over  its  base 
as  a  purple  sea.  Nowhere  else  did  the  opu- 
lence of  this  climate  of  blossoms  show  itself 
as  vividly.  Even  the  Castiliau  roses,  that 
grew  as  vines  along  the  east  front,  the 
fuchsias,  that  attained  the  dignity  of  trees, 
in  the  patio,  or  the  four  or  five  monster  pas- 
sion-vines that  bestarred  the  low  western 
wall,  and  told  over  and  over  again  their 
mystic  story  —  paled  before  the  sensuous 
glory  of  the  south  veranda. 

As  the  sun  arose,  that  part  of  the  quiet 
'house  first  touched  by  its  light  seemed  to 
waken.  A  few  lounging  peons  and  servants 
made  their  appearance  at  the  entrance  of  the 
patio,  occasionally  reinforced  by  an  earlier 
life  from  the  gardens  and  stables.  But  the 
south  facade  of  the  building  had  not  appar- 
ently gone  to  bed  at  all :  lights  were  still 
burning  dimly  in  the  large  ball-room  ;  a  tray 
with  glasses  stood  upon  the  veranda  near 
one  of  the  open  French  windows,  and  further 


MARUJA.  9 

on,  a  half-shut  yellow  fan  lay  like  a  fallen 
leaf.  The  sound  of  carriage-wheels  on  the 
gravel  terrace  brought  with  it  voices  and 
laughter  and  the  swiftly  passing  vision  of  a 
char-a-bancs  filled  with  muffled  figures  bend- 
ing low  to  avoid  the  direct  advances  of  the 
sun. 

As  the  carriage  rolled  away,  four  men 
lounged  out  of  a  window  on  the  veranda, 
shading  their  eyes  against  the  level  beams. 
One  was  still  in  evening  dress,  and  one  in 
the  uniform  of  a  captain  of  artillery ;  the 
others  had  already  changed  their  gala  attire, 
the  elder  of  the  party  having  assumed  those 
extravagant  tweeds  which  the  tourist  from 
Great  Britain  usually  offers  as  a  gentle  con- 
cession to  inferior  yet  more  florid  civiliza- 
tion. Nevertheless,  he  beamed  back  heartily 
on  the  sun,  and  remarked,  in  a  pleasant 
Scotch  accent,  that :  Did  they  know  it  was 
very  extraordinary  how  clear  the  morning 
was,  so  free  from  clouds  and  mist  and  fog? 
The  young  man  in  evening  dress  fluently 


10  MAROJA. 

agreed  to  the  facts,  and  suggested,  in  idio- 
matic French  -  English,  that  one  compre- 
hended that  the  bed  was  an  insult  to  one's 
higher  nature  and  an  ingratitud^  to  their 
gracious  hostess,  who  had  spread  out  this 
lovely  garden  and  walks  for  their  pleasure  ; 
that  nothing  was  more  beautiful  than  the 
dew  sparkling  on  the  rose,  or  the  matin  song 
of  the  little  birds. 

The  other  young  man  here  felt  called  upon 
to  point  out  the  fact  that  there  was  no  dew 
in  California,  and  that  the  birds  did  not 
sing  in  that  part  of  the  country.  The  for- 
eign young  gentleman  received  this  state- 
ment with  pain  and  astonishment  as  to  the 
fact,  with  passionate  remorse  as  to  his  own 
ignorance.  But  still,  as  it  was  a  charming 
day,  would  not  his  gallant  friend,  the  Cap- 
tain fyere,  accept  the  challenge  of  the  brave 
Englishman,  and  "  walk  him  "  for  the  glory 
of  his  flag  and  a  thousand  pounds  ? 

The  gallant  Captain,  unfortunately,  be- 
lieved that  if  he  walked  out  in  his  uniform 


MARUJA.  11 

he  would  suffer  some  delay  from  being  in- 
terrogated by  wayfarers  as  to  the  locality  of 
the  circus  he  would  be  pleasantly  supposed 
to  represent,  even  if  he  escaped  being  shot 
as  a  rare  California  bird  by  the  foreign 
sporting  contingent.  In  these  circumstances, 
he  would  simply  lounge  around  the  house 
until  his  carriage  was  ready. 

Much  as  it  pained  him  to  withdraw  from 
such  amusing  companions,  the  foreign  young 
gentleman  here  felt  that  he,  too,  would  retire 
for  the  present  to  change  his  garments,  and 
glided  back  through  the  window  at  the  same 
moment  that  the  young  officer  carelessly 
stepped  from  the  veranda  and  lounged  to- 
wards the  shrubbery. 

"  They  've  been  watching  each  other  for 
the  last  hour.  I  wonder  what 's  up?"  said 
the  young  man  who  remained. 

The  remark,  without  being  confidential, 
was  so  clearly  the  first  sentence  of  natural 
conversation  that  the  Scotchman,  although 
relieved,  said,  "  Eh,  man  ? "  a  little  cau- 
tiously. 


12  MARUJA. 

"  It 's  as  clear  as  this  sunshine  that  Cap- 
tain Carroll  and  Garnier  are  each  particu- 
larly anxious  to  know  what  the  other  is  do- 
ing or  intends  to  do  this  morning." 

41  Why  did  they  separate,  then  ?  "  asked 
the  other. 

"  That 's  a  mere  blind.  Garnier 's  looking 
through  his  window  now  at  Carroll,  and  Car- 
roll is  aware  of  it." 

"  Eh !  "  said  the  Scotchman,  with  good- 
humored  curiosity.  "  Is  it  a  quarrel  ?  Noth- 
ing serious,  I  hope.  No  revolvers  and  bowie- 
knives,  man,  before  breakfast,  eh?" 

"No,"  laughed  the  younger  man.  "No! 
To  do  Maruja  justice,  she  generally  makes  a 
fellow  too  preposterous  to  fight.  I  see  you 
don't  understand.  You  're  a  stranger ;  I  'm 
an  old  habitue  of  the  house  —  let  me  explain. 
Both  of  these  men  are  in  love  with  Maruja ; 
or,  worse  than  that,  they  firmly  believe  her 
to  be  in  love  with  them." 

"  But  Miss  Maruja  is  the  eldest  daughter 
of  our  hostess,  is  she  not? "  said  the  Scotch- 


MARUJA.  13 

man ;  "  and  I  understood  from  one  of  the 
young  ladies  that  the  Captain  had  coine 
down  from  the  Fort  particularly  to  pay  court 
to  Miss  Amita,  the  beauty." 

"Possibly.  But  that  would  n't  prevent 
Maruja  from  flirting  with  him." 

"  Eh !  but  are  you  not  mistaken,  Mr.  Ray- 
mond ?  Certainly  a  more  quiet,  modest,  and 
demure  young  lassie  I  never  met." 

"  That  's  because  she  sat  out  two  waltzes 
with  you,  and  let  you  do  the  talking,  while 
she  simply  listened." 

The  elder  man's  fresh  color  for  an  instant 
heightened,  but  he  recovered  himself  with  a 
good-humored    laugh.      "Likely  —  likely.. 
She  's  a  capital  good  listener." 

"  You  're  not  the  first  man  that  found  her 
eloquent.  Stanton,  your  banking  friend, 
who  never  talks  of  anything  but  mines  and 
stocks,  says  she  's  the  only  woman  who  has 
any  conversation  ;  and  we  can  all  swear  that 
she  never  said  two  words  to  him  the  whole 
time  she  sat  next  to  him  at  dinner.  But  she 


14  MARUJA. 

looked  at  him  as  if  she  had.  Why,  man, 
woman,  and  child  all  give  her  credit  for  any 
grace  that  pleases  themselves.  And  why? 
Because  she  's  clever  enough  not  to  practice 
any  one  of  them  —  as  graces.  I  don't  know 
the  girl  that  claims  less  and  gets  more.  For 
instance,  you  don't  call  her  pretty  ? "  .  .  . 

"  Wait  a  bit.  Ye  '11  not  get  on  so  fast, 
my  young  friend  ;  I  'm  not  prepared  to  say 
that  she  's  not,"  returned  the  Scotchman, 
with  good-humored  yet  serious  caution. 

"  But  you  would  have  been  prepared  yes- 
terday, and  have  said  it.  She  can  produce 
the  effect  of  the  prettiest  girl  here,  and 
without  challenging  comparison.  Nobody 
thinks  of  her  —  everybody  experiences  her." 

"  You  're  an  enthusiast,  Mr.  Raymond. 
As  an  habitue*  of  the  house,  of  course, 
you  "  — 

"  Oh,  my  time  came  with  the  rest,"  laughed 
the  young  man,  with  unaffected  frankness. 
"  It  's  about  two  years  ago  now." 

"  I  see  —  you  were  not  a  marrying  man." 


MAR  UJA.  15 

"  Pardon  me  —  it  was  because  I  was." 

The  Scotchman  looked  at  him  curiously. 

"Maruja  is  an  heiress.  I  am  a  mining 
engineer." 

"  But,  my  dear  fellow,  I  thought  that  in 
your  country  "  — 

"  In  my  country,  yes.  But  we  are  stand- 
ing on  a  bit  of  old  Spain.  This  land  was 
given  to  Dona  Maria  Saltonstall's  ancestors 
by  Charles  V.  Look  around  you.  This  ve- 
randa, this  larger  shell  of  the  ancient  casa, 
is  the  work  of  the  old  Salem  whaling  cap- 
tain that  she  married,  and  is  all  that  is 
American  here.  But  the  heart  of  the  house, 
as  well  as  the  life  that  circles  around  the 
old  patio,  is  Spanish.  The  Dona's  family, 
the  Estudillos  and  Guitierrez,  always  looked 
down  upon  this  alliance  with  the  Yankee 
captain,  though  it  brought  improvement  to 
the  land,  and  increased  its  value  forty-fold, 
and  since  his  death  ever  opposed  any  fur- 
ther foreign  intervention.  Not  that  that 
would  weigh  much  with  Maruja  if  she  took 


16  MARUJA. 

a  fancy  to  any  one ;  Spanish  as  she  is 
throughout,  in  thought  and  grace  and  fea- 
ture, there  is  enough  of  the  old  Salem  witch- 
es' blood  in  her  to  defy  law  and  authority 
in  following  an  unhallowed  wrorship.  There 
are  no  sons;  she  is  the  sole  heiress  of  the 
house  and  estate  —  though,  according  to  the 
native  custom,  her  sisters  will  be  separately 
portioned  from  the  other  property,  wrhich  is 
very  large." 

"  Then  the  Captain  might  still  make  a 
pretty  penny  on  Amita,"  said  the  Scotch- 
man. 

"If  he  did  not  risk  and  lose  it  all  on  Ma- 
ruja.  There  is  enough  of  the  old  Spanish 
jealousy  in  the  blood  to  make  even  the  gen- 
tle Amita  never  forgive  his  "momentary  de- 
fection." 

Something  in  his  manner  made  the  Scotch- 
man think  that  Eaymond  spoke  from  baleful 
experience.  How  else  could  this  attractive 
young  fellow,  educated  abroad  and  a  rising 
man  in  his  profession,  have  failed  to  profit 


MARUJA.  17 

by  his  contiguity  to  such  advantages,  and 
the  fact  of  his  being  an  evident  favorite  ? 

"  But  with  this  opposition  on  the  part  of 
the  relatives  to  any  further  alliances  with 
your  countrymen,  why  does  our  hostess  ex- 
pose her  daughters  to  their  fascinating  influ- 
ence ?  "  said  the  elder  man,  glancing  at  his 
companion.  "  The  girls  seem  to  have  the 
usual  American  freedom." 

"  Perhaps  they  are  therefore  the  less  like- 
ly to  give  it  up  to  the  first  man  who  asks 
them.  But  the  Spanish  duenna  still  sur- 
vives in  the  family  —  the  more  awful  because 
invisible.  It  's  a  mysterious  fact  that  as 
soon  as  a  fellow  becomes  particularly  at- 
tached to  any  one  —  except  Maruja  —  he  re- 
ceives some  intimation  from  Pereo." 

"What!  the  butler?  That  Indian-look- 
ing fellow  ?  A  servant  ?  " 

"  Pardon  me  —  the  mayordomo.  The  old 
confidential  servitor  who  stands  in  loco  pa- 
rentis.  No  one  knows  what  he  says.  If  the 
victim  appeals  to  the  mistress,  she  is  indis- 


18  MARUJA. 

posed ;  you  know  she  has  such  bad  health. 
If  in  his  madness  he  makes  a  confidante  of 
Maruja,  that  finishes  him." 

"How?" 

"  Why,  he  ends  by  transferring  his  young 
affections  to  her  —  with  the  usual  result." 

"Then  you  don't  think  our  friend  the 
Captain  has  had  this  confidential  butler  ask 
his  intentions  yet  ?  " 

"  I  don't  think  it  will  be  necessary,"  said 
the  other,  dryly. 

"  Umph !  Meantime,  the  Captain  has  just 
vanished  through  yon  shrubbery.  I  suppose 
that 's  the  end  of  the  mysterious  espionage 
you  have  discovered.  No !  De'il  take  it ! 
but  there  's  that  Frenchman  popping  out  of 
the  myrtle-bush.  How  did  the  fellow  get 
there  ?  And,  bless  me  !  here  's  our  lassie, 
too!" 

"  Yes !  "  said  Raymond,  in  a  changed 
voice,  "  It 's  Maruja !  " 

She  had  approached  so  noiselessly  along 
the  bank  that  bordered  the  veranda,  glid- 


MARUJA.  19 

ing  from  pillar  to  pillar  as  she  paused  before 
each  to  search  for  some  particular  flower, 
that  both  men  felt  an  uneasy  consciousness. 
But  she  betrayed  no  indication  of  their  pres- 
ence by  look  or  gesture.  So  absorbed  and 
abstracted  she  seemed  that,  by  a  common 
instinct,  they  both  drew  nearer  the  window, 
and  silently  waited  for  her  to  pass  or  recog- 
nize them. 

She  halted  a  few  paces  off  to  fasten  a 
flower  in  her  girdle.  A  small  youthful 
figure,  in  a  pale  yellow  dress,  lacking  even 
the  maturity  of  womanly  outline.  The  full 
oval  of  her  face,  the  straight  line  of  her 
back,  a  slight  boyishness  in  the  contour  of 
her  hips,  the  infantine  smallness  of  her 
sandaled  feet  and  narrow  hands,  were  all 
suggestive  of  fresh,  innocent,  amiable  youth 
—  and  nothing  more. 

Forgetting  himself,  the  elder  man  mis- 
chievously crushed  his  companion  against 
the  wall  in  mock  virtuous  indignation.  "  Eh, 
sir,"  he  whispered,  with  an  accent  that 


20  MARUJA. 

broadened  with  his  feelings.  "  Eh,  but  look 
at  the  puir  wee  lassie !  Will  ye  110  be 
ashamed  o'  yerself  for  putting  the  tricks  of 
a  Circe  on  sic  a  honest  gentle  bairn  ?  Why, 
man,  you  '11  be  seein'  the  sign  of  a  limb  of 
Satan  in  a  bit  thing  with  the  mother's  milk 
not  yet  out  of  her !  She  a  flirt,  speerin'  at 
men,  with  that  modest  downcast  air  ?  I  'm 
ashamed  of  ye,  Mister  Raymond.  She's 
only  thinking  of  her  breakfast,  puir  thing, 
and  not  of  yon  callant.  Another  sacrilegious 
word  and  I  '11  expose  you  to  her.  Have  ye 
no  pity  on  youth  and  innocence  ?  " 

"  Let  me  up,"  groaned  Raymond,  feebly, 
"  and  I  '11  tell  you  how  old  she  is.  Hush  — 
she 's  looking." 

The  two  men  straightened  themselves. 
She  had,  indeed,  lifted  her  eyes  towards  the 
window.  They  were  beautiful  eyes,  and 
charged  with  something  more  than  their 
own  beauty.  With  a  deep  brunette  setting 
even  to  the  darkened  cornea,  the  pupils  were 
blue  as  the  sky  above  them.  But  they  were 


MAR  UJA.  21 

lit  with  another  intelligence.  The  soul  of 
the  Salem  whaler  looked  out  of  the  passion- 
darkened  orbits  of  the  mother,  and  was  re- 
sistless. 

She  smiled  recognition  of  the  two  men 
with  sedate  girlishness  and  a  foreign  incli- 
nation of  the  head  over  the  flowers  she  was 
holding.  Her  straight,  curveless  mouth  be- 
came suddenly  charming  with  the  parting 
of  her  lips  over  her  white  teeth,  and  left  the 
impress  of  the  smile  in  a  lighting  of  the 
whole  face  even  after  it  had  passed.  Then 
she  moved  away.  At  the  same  moment 
Gamier  approached  her. 

*'  Come  away,  man,  and  have  our  walk," 
said  the  Scotchman,  seizing  Raymond's  arm. 
44  We  '11  not  spoil  that  fellow's  sport." 

"  No ;  but  she  will,  I  fear.  Look,  Mr. 
Buchanan,  if  she  has  n't  given  him  her  flow- 
ers to  carry  to  the  house  while  she  waits 
here  for  the  Captain  !  " 

"  Come  away,  scoffer !  "   said  Buchanan, 


22  MARUJA. 

good  -  humoredly,  locking  his  arm  in  the 
young  man's  and  dragging  him  from  the 
veranda  towards  the  avenue,  "  and  keep 
your  observations  for  breakfast." 


CHAPTER  II. 

IN  the  mean  time,  the  young  officer,  who 
had  disappeared  in  the  shrubbery,  whether 
he  had  or  had  not  been  a  spectator  of  the 
scene,  exhibited  some  signs  of  agitation. 
He  walked  rapidly  on,  occasionally  switch- 
ing the  air  with  a  wand  of  willow,  from 
which  he  had  impatiently  plucked  the  leaves, 
through  an  alley  of  ceanothus,  until  he 
reached  a  little  thicket  of  evergreens,  which 
seemed  to  oppose  his  further  progress.  Turn- 
ing to  one  side,  however,  he  quickly  found 
an  entrance  to  a  labyrinthine  walk,  which 
led  him  at  last  to  an  open  space  and  a  rustic 
summer-house  that  stood  beneath  a  gnarled 
and  venerable  pear-tree.  The  summer-house 
was  a  quaint  stockade  of  dark  madrono 
boughs  thatched  with  red-wood  bark,  strong- 
ly suggestive  of  deeper  woodland  shadow. 


24  MARUJA. 

But  in  strange  contrast,  the  floor,  table,  and 
benches  were  thickly  strewn  with  faded  rose- 
leaves,  scattered  as  if  in  some  riotous  play_ 
of  children.  Captain  Carroll  brushed  them 
aside  hurriedly  with  his  impatient  foot, 
glanced  around  hastily,  then  threw  himself 
on  the  rustic  bench  at  full  length,  and  twist- 
ed his  moustache  between  his  nervous  fin- 
gers. Then  he  rose  as  suddenly,  with  a  few 
white  petals  impaled  on  his  gilded  spurs, 
and  stepped  quickly  into  the  open  sunlight. 

He  must  have  been  mistaken!  Every- 
thing wras  quiet  around  him,  the  far-off 
sound  of  wrheels  in  the  avenue  came  faintly, 
but  nothing  more. 

His  eye  fell  upon  the  pear-tree,  and  even 
in  his  preoccupation  he  was  struck  with  the 
signs  of  its  extraordinary  age.  Twisted  out 
of  all  proportion,  and  knotted  with  excres- 
cences, it  was  supported  by  iron  bands  and 
heavy  stakes,  as  if  to  prop  up  its  senile  de- 
cay. He  tried  to  interest  himself  in  the 
various  initials  and  symbols  deeply  carved  in 


MARDJA.  25 

bark,  now  swollen  and  half  obliterated.  As 
he  turned  back  to  the  summer-house,  he  for 
the  first  time  noticed  that  the  ground  rose 
behind  it  into  a  long  undulation,  on  the  crest 
of  which  the  same  singular  profusion  of  rose- 
leaves  were  scattered.  It  struck  him  as  be- 
ing strangely  like  a  gigantic  grave,  and  that 
the  same  idea  had  occurred  to  the  fantastic 
dispenser  of  the  withered  flowers.  He  was 
still  looking  at  it,  when  a  rustle  in  the  under- 
growth made  his  heart  beat  expectantly.  A 
slinking  gray  shadow  crossed  the  undulation 
and  disappeared  in  the  thicket.  It  was  a 
coyote.  At  any  other  time  the  extraordinary 
appearance  of  this  vivid  impersonation  of 
the  wilderness,  so  near  a  centre  of  human 
civilization  and  habitation,  would  have  filled 
him  with  wonder.  But  he  had  room  for 
only  a  single  thought  now.  Would  she 
come  ? 

Five  minutes  passed.  He  no  longer  waited 
in  the  summer-house,  but  paced  impatiently 
before  the  entrance  to  the  labyrinth.  An- 


26  MARUJA. 

other  five  minutes.  He  was  deceived,  un- 
doubtedly. She  and  her  sisters  were  prob- 
ably waiting  for  him  and  laughing  at  him 
on  the  lawn.  He  ground  his  heel  into  the 
clover,  and  threw  his  switch  into  the  thicket. 
Yet  he  would  give  her  one  —  only  one  mo- 
ment more. 

"Captain  Carroll!" 

The  voice  had  been  and  was  to  him  the 
sweetest  in  the  world ;  but  even  a  stranger 
could  not  have  resisted  the  spell  of  its  mu- 
sical inflection.  He  turned  quickly.  She 
was  advancing  towards  him  from  the  sum- 
mer-house. 

"  Did  you  think  I  was  coming  that  way 
—  where  everybody  could  follow  me  ?  "  she 
laughed,  softly.  "  No ;  I  came  through  the 
thicket  over  there,"  indicating  the  direction 
with  her  flexible  shoulder,  "  and  nearly  lost 
my  slipper  and  my  eyes  —  look  !  "  She 
threw  back  the  inseparable  lace  shawl  from 
her  blonde  head,  and  showed  a  spray  of 
myrtle  clinging  like  a  broken  wreath  to  her 


MARUJA.  27 

forehead.  The  young  officer  remained  gaz- 
ing at  her  silently. 

"  I  like  to  hear  you  speak  ray  name,"  he 
said,  with  a  slight  hesitation  in  his  breath. 
"  Say  it  again." 

"Car-roll,  Car-roll,  Car-roll,"  she  mur- 
mured gently  to  herself  two  or  three  times, 
as  if  enjoying  her  own  native  trilling  of 
the  r's.  "  It 's  a  pretty  name.  It  sounds 
like  a  song.  Don  Carroll,  eh !  El  Capitan 
Don  Carroll." 

"  But  my  first  name  is  Henry,"  he  said, 
faintly. 

"'Enry — that's  not  so  good.  Don  En- 
rico will  do.  But  El  Capitan  Carroll  is  best 
of  all.  I  must  have  it  always :  El  Capitan 
Carroll!" 

"  Always  ?  "     He  colored  like  a  boy. 

"  Why  not  ?  "  He  was  confusedly  trying 
to  look  through  her  brown  lashes ;  she  was 
parrying  him  with  the  steel  of  her  father's 
glance.  "  Come  !  Well !  Captain  Carroll ! 
It  was  not  to  tell  me  your  name  —  that  I 


28  MARUJA. 

knew  already  was  pretty  — :  Car-roll !  "  she 
murmured  again,  caressing  him  with  her 
lashes  ;  "  it  was  not  for  this  that  you  asked 
me  to  meet  you  face  to  face  in  this  —  cold  " 

—  she   made  a  movement  of   drawing  her 
lace    over   her    shoulders — "cold   daylight. 
That  belonged  to  the  lights  and  the  dance 
and  the  music  of  last  night.     It  is  not  for 
this  you  expect  me  to  leave  my  guests,  to 
run  away  from  Monsieur  Gamier,  who  pays 
compliments,  but  whose  name  is  not  pretty 

—  from    Mr.    Raymond,   who   talks    of  me 
when  he  can't  talk  to  me.     They  will  say, 
This  Captain  Carroll  could  say  all  that  be- 
fore them." 

"  But  if  they  knew,"  said  the  young  offi- 
cer, drawing  closer  to  her  with*  a  paling  face 
but  brightening  eyes,  "  if  they  knew  I  had 
anything  else  to  say,  Miss  Saltonstall  — 
something  —  pardon  me  —  did  I  hurt  your 
hand  ?  —  something  for  liar  alone  —  is  there 
one  of  them  that  would  have  the  right  to 
object  ?  Do  not  think  me  foolish,  Miss 


MARUJA.  29 

Saltonstall  —  but  —  I  beg  —  I  implore  you 
to  tell  me  before  I  say  more." 

"  Who  would  have  a  right  ?  "  said  Maruja, 
withdrawing  her  hand  but  not  her  danger- 
ous eyes.  "Who  would  dare  forbid  you 
talking  to  me  of  my  sister?  I  have  told 
you  that  Amita  is  free  —  as  we  all  are." 

Captain  Carroll  fell  back  a  few  steps  and 
gazed  at  her  with  a  troubled  face.  "  Is  it 
possible  that  you  have  misunderstood,  Miss 
Saltonstall?"  he  faltered.  "Do  you  still 
think  it  is  Amita  that  I" — he  stopped  and 
added  passionately,  "  Do  you  remember 
what  I  told  you  ?  —  have  you  forgotten  last 
night?" 

"  Last  night  was  —  last  night !  "  said  Ma- 
ruja, slightly  lifting  her  shoulders.  "  One 
makes  love  at  night  —  one  marries  in  day- 
light. In  the  music,  in  the  flowers,  in  the 
moonlight,  one  says  everything ;  in  the  morn- 
ing one  has  breakfast  —  when  one  is  not 
asked  to  have  councils  of  war  with  captains 
and  commandantes.  You  would  speak  of 


80  MARUJA. 

my  sister,  Captain  Car-roll  —  go  on.  Dona 
Amita  Carroll  sounds  very,  very  pretty.  I 
shall  not  object."  She  held  out  both  her 
hands  to  him,  threw  her  head  back,  and 
smiled. 

He  seized  her  hands  passionately.  "  No, 
no !  you  shall  hear  me  —  you  shall  under- 
stand me.  I  love  you,  Maruja  —  you,  and 
you  alone.  .God  knows  I  cannot  help  it  — 
God  knows  I  would  not  help  it  if  I  could. 
Hear  me.  I  will  be  calm.  No  one  can  hear 
us  where  we  stand.  I  am  not  mad.  I  am 
not  a  traitor !  I  frankly  admired  your  sis- 
ter. I  came  here  to  see  her.  Beyond  that,  I 
swear  to  you,  1  am  guiltless  to  her  —  to  you. 
Even  she  knows  no  more  of  me  than  that. 
I  saw  you,  Maruja.  From  that  moment  I 
have  thought  of  nothing  —  dreamed  of  noth- 
ing else." 

"  That  is  —  three,  four,  five  days  and  one 
afternoon  ago !  You  see,  I  remember.  And 
now  you  want  —  what  ?  " 

"  To  let  me  love  you,  and  you  only.     To 


MARUJA.  31 

let  me  be  with  you.  To  let  me  win  you  in 
time,  as  you  should  be  won.  I  am  not  mad, 
though  I  am  desperate.  I  know  what  is  due 
to  your  station  and  mine  —  even  while  I  dare 
to  say  I  love  you.  Let  me  hope,  Maruja,  I 
only  ask  to  hope." 

She  looked  at  him  until  she  had  absorbed 
all  the  burning  fever  of  his  eyes,  until  her 
ears  tingled  with  his  passionate  voice,  and 
then  —  she  shook  her  head. 

"  It  cannot  be,  Carroll  —  no  !  never !  " 

He  drew  himself  up  under  the  blow  with 
such  simple  and  manly  dignity  that  her  eyes 
dropped  for  the  moment.  "  There  is  another, 
then  ?  "  he  said,  sadly. 

"There  is  no  one  I  care  for  better  than 
you.  No !  Do  not  be  foolish.  Let  me  go. 
I  tell  you  that  because  you  can  be  nothing 
to  me  —  you  understand,  to  me.  To  my 
sister  Amita,  yes." 

The  young  soldier  raised  his  head  coldly. 
"  I  have  pressed  you  hard,  Miss  Saltoustall 
—  too  hard,  I  know,  for  a  man  who  has  al- 


32  MARUJA. 

ready  had  his  answer  ;  but  I  did  not  deserve 
this.  Good-by." 

"  Stop,"  she  said,  gently.  "  I  meant  not 
to  hurt  you,  Captain  Carroll.  If  I  had,  it  is 
not  thus  I  would  have  done.  I  need  not 
have  met  you  here.  Would  you  have  loved 
me  the  less  if  I  had  avoided  this  meeting?" 

He  could  not  reply.  In  the  depths  of  his 
miserable  heart,  he  knew  that  he  would  have 
loved  her  the  same. 

"  Come,"  she  said,  laying  her  hand  softly 
on  his  arm,  "  do  not  be  angry  writh  me  for 
putting  you  back  only  five  days  to  where  you 
were  when  you  first  entered  our  house.  Five 
days  is  not  much  of  happiness  or  sorrow  to 
forget,  is  it,  Carroll  —  Captain  Carroll  ?  " 
Her  voice  died  away  in  a  faint  sigh.  "  Do 
not  be  angry  with  me,  if  —  knowing  you 
could  be  nothing  more  —  I  wanted  you  to 
love  my  sister,  and  my  sister  to  love  you. 
We  should  have  been  good  friends  —  such 
good  friends." 

"  Why  do  you  say,  4  Knowing  it  could  be 


MARUJA.  33 

nothing  more '  ?  "  said  Carroll,  grasping  her 
hand  suddenly.  "  In  the  name  of  Heaven, 
tell  me  what  you  mean  !  " 

"  I  mean  I  cannot  marry  unless  I  marry 
one  of  my  mother's  race.  That  is  my  moth- 
er's wish,  and  the  will  of  her  relations.  You 
are  an  American,  not  of  Spanish  blood." 

"But  surely  this  is  not  your  determina- 
tion?" 

She  shrugged  her  shoulders.  "  What  would 
you  ?  It  is  the  determination  of  my  peo- 
ple." 

"  But  knowing  this  "  —  he  stopped ;  the 
quick  blood  rose  to  his  face. 

"  Go  on,  Captain  Carroll.  You  would  say, 
Knowing  this,  why  did  I  not  warn  you  ? 
Why  did  I  not  say  to  you  when  we  first  met 
'You  have  come  to  address  my  sister;  do 
not  fall  in  love  with  me  —  I  cannot  marry  a 
foreigner.'  " 

"  You  are  cruel,  Maruja.  But,  if  that  is 
all,  surely  this  prejudice  can  be  removed? 
Why,  your  mother  married  a  foreigner  —  an 
American." 


34  MARUJA. 

"  Perhaps  that  is  why,"  said  the  girl, 
quietly.  She  cast  clown  her  long  lashes,  and 
with  the  point  of  her  satin  slipper  smoothed 
out  the  soft  leaves  of  the  clover  at  her  feet. 
"Listen;  shall  I  tell  you  the  story  of  our 
house  ?  Stop  !  some  one  is  coming.  Don't 
move ;  remain  as  you  are.  If  you  care  for 
me,  Carroll,  collect  yourself,  and  don't  let 
that  man  think  he  has  found  us  ridiculous." 
Her  voice  changed  from  its  tone  of  slight 
caressing  pleading  to  one  of  suppressed 
pride.  "  He  will  not  laugh  much,  Captain 
Carroll ;  truly,  no." 

The  figure  of  Gamier,  bright,  self-pos- 
sessed, courteous,  appeared  at  the  opening  of 
the  labyrinth.  Too  well-bred  to  suggest, 
even  in  complimentary  raillery,  a  possible 
sentimental  situation,  his  politeness  went 
further.  It  was  so  kind  in  them  to  guide 
an  awkward  stranger  by  their  voices  to  the 
places  where  he  could  not  stupidly  intrude ! 

"  You  are  just  in  time  to  interrupt  or  to 
hear  a  story  that  I  have  been  threatening  to 


MARUJA.  35 

tell,"  she  said,  composedly;  "an  old  Spanish 
legend  of  this  house.  You  are  in  the  ma- 
jority now,  you  two,  and  can  stop  me  if  you 
choose.  Thank  you.  I  warn  you  it  is  stupid ; 
it  is  n't  new ;  but  it  has  the  excuse  of  being 
suggested  by  this  very  spot."  She  cast  a 
quick  look  of  subtle  meaning  at  Carroll, 
and  throughout  her  recital  appealed  more  di- 
rectly to  him,  in  a  manner  delicately  yet  suf- 
ficiently marked  to  partly  soothe  his  troubled 
spirit. 

"  Far  back,  in  the  very  old  times,  Cabal- 
leros,"  said  Maruja,  standing  by  the  table 
in  mock  solemnity,  and  rapping  upon  it 
with  her  fan,  "  this  place  was  the  home  of 
the  coyote.  Big  and  little,  father  and 
mother,  Senor  and  Senora  Coyotes,  and  the 
little  muchacho  coyotes  had  their  home  in 
the  dark  cailada,  and  came  out  over  these 
fields,  yellow  with  wild  oats  and  red  with 
poppies,  to  seek  their  prey.  They  were 
happy.  For  why  ?  They  were  the  first  ; 
they  had  no  history,  you  comprehend,  no 


36  MARUJA. 

tradition.  They  married  as  they  liked " 
(with  a  glance  at  Carroll),  "  nobody  ob- 
jected ;  they  increased  and  multiplied.  But 
the  plains  were  fertile ;  the  game  was  plen- 
tiful ;  it  was  not  fit  that  it  should  be  for  the 
beasts  alone.  And  so,  in  the  course  of  time, 
an  Indian  chief,  a  heathen,  Koorotora,  built 
his  wigwam  here." 

"  I  beg  your  pardon,"  said  Gamier,  in 
apparent  distress,  "  but  I  caught  the  gentle- 
man's name  imperfectly." 

Fully  aware  that  the  questioner  only 
wished  to  hear  again  her  musical  enuncia- 
tion of  the  consonants,  she  repeated  "  Koo- 
rotora," with  an  apologetic  glance  at  Car- 
roll, and  went  on.  "  This  gentleman  had  no 
history  or  tradition  to  bother  him,  either ; 
whatever  Senor  Coyote  thought  of  the  mat- 
ter, he  contented  himself  with  robbing  Senor 
Koorotora's  wigwam  when  he  could,  and 
skulking  around  the  Indian's  camp  at  night. 
The  old  chief  prospered,  and  made  many 
journeys  round  the  country,  but  always  kept 


MARUJA.  37 

his  camp  here.  This  lasted  until  the  time 
when  the  holy  Fathers  came  from  the  South, 
and  Portala,  as  you  have  all  read,  uplifted 
the  wooden  Cross  on  the  sea-coast  over  there, 
and  left  it  for  the  heathens  to  wonder  at. 
Koorotora  saw  it  on  one  of  his  journeys,  and 
came  back  to  the  Canada  full  of  this  wonder. 
Now,  Koorotora  had  a  wife." 

"  Ah,  we  shall  commence  now.  We  are 
at  the  beginning.  This  is  better  than  Se- 
nora  Coyota,"  said  Gamier,  cheerfully. 

"Naturally,  she  was  anxious  to  see  the 
wonderful  object.  She  saw  it,  and  she  saw 
the  holy  Fathers,  and  they  converted  her 
against  the  superstitious  heathenish  wishes 
of  her  husband.  And  more  than  that,  they 
came  here  "  — 

"  And  converted  the  land  also  ;  is  it  not 
so  ?  It  was  a  lovely  site  for  a  mission,"  in- 
terpolated Gamier,  politely. 

"They  built  a  mission  and  brought  as 
many  of  Koorotora's  people  as  they  could 
into  the  sacred  fold.  They  brought  them  in 


38  MARUJA. 

in  a  queer  fashion  sometimes,  it  is  said; 
dragoons  from  the  Presidio,  Captain  Carroll, 
lassoing  them  and  bringing  them  in  at  the 
tails  of  their  horses.  All  except  Koorotora. 
He  defied  them  ;  he  cursed  them  and  his 
wife  in  his  wicked  heathenish  fashion,  and 
said  that  they  too  should  lose  the  mission 
through  the  treachery  of  some  woman,  and 
that  the  coyote  should  yet  prowl  through 
the  ruined  walls  of  the  church.  The  holy 
Fathers  pitied  the  wicked  man  —  and  built 
themselves  a  lovely  garden.  Look  at  that 
pear-tree  !  There  is  all  that  is  left  of  it !  " 

She  turned  with  a  mock  heroic  gesture, 
and  pointed  her  fan  to  the  pear-tree.  Gar- 
nier  lifted  his  hands  in  equally  simulated 
wonder.  A  sudden  recollection  of  the  co- 
yote of  the  morning  recurred  to  Carroll 
uneasily.  "  And  the  Indians,"  he  said,  with 
an  effort  to  shake  off  the  feeling ;  "  they, 
too,  have  vanished." 

"  All  that  remained  of  them  is  in  yonder 
mound.  It  is  the  grave  of  the  chief  and 


MARUJA.  39 

his  people.  He  never  lived  to  see  the  ful- 
fillment of  his  prophecy.  For  it  was  a  year 
after  his  death  that  our  ancestor,  Manuel 
Guitierrez,  came  from  old  Spain  to  the  Pre- 
sidio with  a  grant  of  twenty  leagues  to  settle 
where  he  chose.  Dona  Maria  Guitierrez 
took  a  fancy  to  the  Canada.  But  it  was 
a  site  already  in  possession  of  the  Holy 
Church.  One  night,  through  treachery,  it 
was  said,  the  guards  were  withdrawn  and 
the  Indians  entered  the  mission,  slaughtered 
the  lay  brethren,  and  drove  away  the  priests. 
The  Commandant  at  the  Presidio  retook 
the  place  from  the  heathens,  but  on  repre- 
sentation to  the  Governor  that  it  was  in- 
defensible for  the  peaceful  Fathers  without 
a  large  military  guard,  the  official  ordered 
the  removal  of  the  mission  to  Santa  Cruz, 
and  Don  Manuel  settled  his  twenty  leagues 
grant  in  the  Canada.  Whether  he  or  Dona 
Maria  had  anything  to  do  with  the  Indian 
uprising,  no  one  knows ;  but  Father  Pedro 
never  forgave  them.  He  is  said  to  have 


40  MARUJA. 

declared  at  the  foot  of  the  altar  that  the 
curse  of  the  Church  was  on  the  land,  and 
that  it  should  always  pass  into  the  hands  of 
the  stranger." 

"  And  that  was  long  ago,  and  the  prop- 
erty is  still  in  the  family,"  said  Carroll, 
hurriedly,  answering  Maruja's  eyes. 

"  In  the  last  hundred  years  there  have 
been  no  male  heirs,"  continued  Maruja,  still 
regarding  Carroll.  "  When  my  mother,  who 
was  the  eldest  daughter,  married  Don  Jose* 
Saltonstall  against  the  wishes  of  the  family, 
it  was  said  that  the  curse  would  fall.  Sure 
enough,  Caballeros,  it  was  that  year  that  the 
forged  grants  of  Micheltorrena  were  dis- 
covered; and  in  our  lawsuit  your  govern- 
ment, Captain,  handed  over  ten  leagues  of 
the  llano  land  to  the  Doctor  West,  our 
neighbor." 

"Ah,  the  gray -headed  gentleman  who 
lunched  here  the  other  day?  You  are 
friends,  then  ?  You  bear  no  malice  ?  "  said 
Garnier. 


MARUJA.  41 

"  What  would  you?"  said  Maruja,  with 
a  slight  shrug  of  her  shoulders.  ""He  paid 
his  money  to  the  forger.  Your  corregidores 
upheld  him,  and  said  it  was  no  forgery,"  she 
continued,  to  Carroll. 

In  spite  of  the  implied  reproach,  Carroll 
felt  relieved.  He  began  to  be  impatient  of 
Garnier's  presence,  and  longed  to  renew  his 
suit.  Perhaps  his  face  showed  something  of 
this,  for  Maruja  added,  with  mock  demure- 
ness,  "  It 's  always  dreadful  to  be  the  eldest 
sister ;  but  think  what  it  is  to  be  in  the  di- 
rect line  of  a  curse  !  Now,  there 's  Amita 
—  she 's  free  to  do  as  she  likes,  with  no  fam- 
ily responsibility  ;  while  poor  me  !  "  She 
dropped  her  eyes,  but  not  until  they  had 
again  sought  and  half-reproved  the  bright- 
ening eyes  of  Carroll. 

"But,"  said  Gamier,  with  a  sudden  change 
from  his  easy  security  and  courteous  indiffer- 
ence to  an  almost  harsh  impatience,  "you 
do  not  mean  to  say,  Mademoiselle,  that  you 
have  the  least  belief  in  this  rubbish,  this  ri- 
diculous canard  ?  " 


42  MARUJA. 

Maruja's  straight  mouth  quickly  tightened 
over  her  teeth.  She  shot  a  significant  glance 
at  Carroll,  but  instantly  resumed  her  former 
manner. 

"  It  matters  little  what  a  foolish  girl  like 
myself  believes.  The  rest  of  the  family,  even 
the  servants  and  children,  all  believe  it.  It 
is  a  part  of  their  religion.  Look  at  these 
flowers  around  the  pear-tree,  and  scattered 
on  that  Indian  mound.  They  regularly  find 
their  way  there  on  saints'  days  and  festas. 
They  are  not  rubbish,  Monsieur  Gamier; 
they  are  propitiatory  sacrifices.  Pereo  would 
believe  that  a  temblor  would  swallow  up  the 
casa  if  we  should  ever  forego  these  custom- 
ary rites.  Is  it  a  mere  absurdity  that  forced 
my  father  to  build  these  modern  additions 
around  the  heart  of  the  old  adobe  house, 
leaving  it  untouched,  so  that  the  curse  might 
not  be  fulfilled  even  by  implication?" 

She  had  assumed  an  air  of  such  pretty 
earnestness  and  passion  ;  her  satin  face  was 
illuminated  as  by  some  softly  sensuous  light 


MARUJA.  43 

within  more  bewildering  than  mere  color, 
that  Garnier,  all  devoted  eyes  and  courteous 
blandishment,  broke  out:  "But  this  curse 
must  fall  harmlessly  before  the  incarnation 
of  blessing ;  Miss  Saltonstall  has  no  more  to 
fear  than  the  angels.  She  is  the  one  pre- 
destined through  her  charm,  through  her 
goodness,  to  lift  it  forever." 

Carroll  could  not  have  helped  echoing  the 
aspirations  of  his  rival,  had  not  the  next 
words  of  his  mistress  thrilled  him  with  su- 
perstitious terror. 

"  A  thousand  thanks,  Seiior.  Who  knows  ? 
But  I  shall  have  warning  when  it  falls.  A 
day  or  two  before  the  awful  invader  arrives, 
a  coyote  suddenly  appears  in  broad  daylight, 
mysteriously,  near  the  casa.  This  midnight 
marauder,  now  banished  to  the  thickest 
canon,  comes  again  to  prowl  around  the 
home  of  his  ancestors.  Caramba!  Seiior 
Captain,  what  are  you  staring  at?  You 
frighten  me !  Stop  it,  I  say !  " 

She  had  turned  upon  him,  stamping  her 


44  MARUJA. 

little  foot  in  quite  a  frightened,  childlike 
way. 

"  Nothing,"  laughed  Carroll,  the  quick 
blood  returning  to  his  cheek.  "But  you 
must  not  be  angry  with  one  for  being  quite 
carried  away  with  your  dramatic  intensity. 
By  Jove  !  I  thought  I  could  see  the  whole 
thing  while  you  were  speaking  —  the  old  In- 
dian, the  priest,  and  the  coyote !  "  His  eyes 
sparkled.  The  wild  thought  had  occurred 
to  him  that  perhaps,  in  spite  of  himself,  he 
was  the  young  woman's  predestined  fate ; 
and  in  the  very  selfishness  of  his  passion  he 
smiled  at  the  mere  material  loss  of  lands 
and  prestige  that  would  follow  it.  "  Then 
the  coyote  has  always  preceded  some  change 
in  the  family  fortunes  ?  "  he  asked,  boldly. 

"  On  my  mother's  wedding-day,"  said  Ma- 
ruja,  in  a  lower  voice,  "  after  the  party  had 
come  from  church  to  supper  in  the  old  casa, 
my  father  asked,  4  What  dog  is  that  under 
the  table  ?  '  When  they  lifted  the  cloth  to 
look,  a  coyote  rushed  from  the  very  midst  of 


MARUJA.  45 

the  guests  and  dashed  out  across  the  patio. 
No  one  knew  how  or  when  he  entered." 

"  Heaven  grant  that  we  do  not  find  he  has 
eaten  our  breakfast !  "  said  Gamier,  gayly, 
"  for  I  judge  it  is  waiting  us.  I  hear  your 
sister's  voice  among  the  others  crossing  the 
lawn.  Shall  we  tear  ourselves  away  from 
the  tombs  of  our  ancestors,  and  join  them  ?  " 

"  Not  as  I  am  looking  now,  thank  you," 
said  Maruja,  throwing  the  lace  over  her 
head.  "  I  shall  not  submit  myself  to  a  com- 
parison of  their  fresher  faces  and  toilets 
by  you  two  gentlemen.  Go  you  both  and 
join  them.  I  shall  wait  and  say  an  Ave  for 
the  soul  of  Koorotora,  and  slip  back  alone 
the  way  I  came." 

She  had  steadily  evaded  the  pleading 
glance  of  Carroll,  and  though  her  bright  face 
and  unblemished  toilet  showed  the  ineffi- 
ciency of  her  excuse,  it  was  evident  that  her 
wish  to  be  alone  was  genuine  and  without 
coquetry.  They  could  only  lift  their  hats 
and  turn  regretfully  away. 


46  MARUJA. 

As  the  red  cap  of  the  young  officer  disap- 
peared amidst  the  evergreen  foliage,  the 
young  woman  uttered  a  faint  sigh,  which 
she  repeated  a  moment  after  as  a  slight 
nervous  yawn.  Then  she  opened  and  shut 
her  fan  once  or  twice,  striking  the  sticks 
against  her  little  pale  palm,  and  then,  gath- 
ering the  lace  under  her  oval  chin  with  one 
hand,  and  catching  her  fan  and  skirt  with 
the  other,  bent  her  head  and  dipped  into  the 
bushes.  She  came  out  on  the  other  side 
near  a  low  fence,  that  separated  the  park 
from  a  narrow  lane  which  communicated 
with  the  high  road  beyond.  As  she  neared 
the  fence,  a  slinking  figure  limped  along  the 
lane  before  her.  It  was  the  tramp  of  the 
early  morning. 

They  raised  their  heads  at  the  same  mo- 
ment and  their  eyes  met.  The  tramp,  in 
that  clearer  light,  showed  a  spare,  but  bent 
figure,  roughly  clad  in  a  miner's  shirt  and 
canvas  trousers,  splashed  and  streaked  with 
soil,  and  half  hidden  in  a  ragged  blue  cast- 


MARUJA.  47 

off  army  overcoat  lazily  hanging  from  one 
shoulder.  His  thin  sun-burnt  face  was  not 
without  a  certain  sullen,  suspicious  intelli- 
gence, and  a  look  of  half-sneering  defiance. 
He  stopped,  as  a  startled,  surly  animal 
might  have  stopped  at  some  unusual  object, 
but  did  not  exhibit  any  other  discomposure. 
Maruja  stopped  at  the  same  moment  on  her 
side  of  the  fence. 

The  tramp  looked  at  her  deliberately,  and 
then  slowly  lowered  his  eyes.  "  I  'm  look- 
ing for  the  San  Jose  road,  hereabouts.  Ye 
don't  happen  to  know  it  ?  "  he  said,  address- 
ing himself  to  the  top  of  the  fence. 

It  had  been  said  that  it  was  not  Maruja's 
way  to  encounter  man,  woman,  or  child,  old 
or  young,  without  an  attempt  at  subjugation. 
Strong  in  her  power  and  salient  with  fasci- 
nation, she  leaned  gently  over  the  fence,  and 
with  the  fan  raised  to  her  delicate  ear,  made 
him  repeat  his  question  under  the  soft  fire 
of  her  fringed  eyes.  He  did  so,  but  incom- 
pletely, and  with  querulous  laziness. 


48  MARUJA. 

"  Lookin'  —  for  —  San  Jose*  road  —  here'- 
bouts." 

"The  road  to  San  Jose,"  said  Mamja, 
with  gentle  slowness,  as  if  not  unwilling  to 
protract  the  conversation,  "  is  about  two 
miles  from  here.  It  is  the  high  road  to  the 
left  fronting  the  plain.  There  is  another 
way,  if  "  — 

"  Don't  want  it !     MorninV 

He  dropped  his  head  suddenly  forward, 
and  limped  away  in  the  sunlight. 


CHAPTER  III. 

BREAKFAST,  usually  a  movable  feast  at 
La  Mision  Perdida,  had  been  prolonged 
until  past  mid-day ;  the  last  of  the  dance 
guests  had  flown,  and  the  home  party  —  with 
the  exception  of  Captain  Carroll,  who  had 
returned  to  duty  at  his  distant  post  —  were 
dispersing;  some  as  riding  cavalcades  to 
neighboring  points  of  interest ;  some  to  visit 
certain  notable  mansions  which  the  wealth 
of  a  rapid  civilization  had  erected  in  that 
fertile  valley.  One  of  these  in  particular, 
the  work  of  a  breathless  millionaire,  was 
famous  for  the  spontaneity  of  its  growth 
and  the  reckless  extravagance  of  its  appoint- 
ments. 

"If  you  go  to  Aladdin's  Palace,"  said 
Maruja,  from  the  top  step  of  the  south 
porch,  to  a  wagonette  of  guests,  "  after 
4 


50  MARUJA. 

you  Ve  seen  the  stables  with  mahogany  fit- 
tings for  one  hundred  horses,  ask  Aladdin  to 
show  you  the  enchanted  chamber,  inlaid 
with  California  woods  and  paved  with  gold 
quartz." 

u  We  would  have  a  better  chance  if  the 
Princess  of  China  would  only  go  with  us," 
pleaded  Garnier,  gallantly. 

"  The  Princess  will  stay  at  home  with  her 
mother,  like  a  good  girl,"  returned  Maruja, 
demurely. 

"A  bad  shot  of  Garnier's  this  time," 
whispered  Raymond  to  Buchanan,  as  the 
vehicle  rolled  away  with  them.  "  The  Prin- 
cess is  not  likely  to  visit  Aladdin  again." 

"Why?" 

"  The  last  time  she  was  there,  Aladdin 
was  a  little  too  Persian  in  his  extravagance : 
offered  her  his  house,  stables,  and  himself." 

"  Not  a  bad  catch  —  why,  he  's  worth  two 
millions,  1  hear." 

"  Yes ;  but  his  wife  is  as  extravagant  as 
himself." 


MARUJA.  51 

"  His  wife,  eh?  Ah,  are  you  serious ;  or 
must  you  say  something  derogatory  of  the 
lassie's  admirers  too?"  said  Buchanan, 
playfully  threatening  him  with  his  cane. 
"  Another  word,  and  I  '11  throw  you  from 
the  wagon." 

After  their  departure,  the  outer  shell  of 
the  great  house  fell  into  a  profound  silence, 
so  hollow  and  deserted  that  one  might  have 
thought  the  curse  of  Koorotora  had  already 
descended  upon  it.  Dead  leaves  of  roses 
and  fallen  blossoms  from  the  long  line  of 
vine-wreathed  columns  lay  thick  on  the 
empty  stretch  of  brown  veranda,  or  rustled 
and  crept  against  the  sides  of  the  house, 
where  the  regular  breath  of  the  afternoon 
"  trades  "  began  to  arise.  A  few  cardinal 
flowers  fell  like  drops  of  blood  before  the 
open  windows  of  the  vacant  ball-room,  in 
which  the  step  of  a  solitary  servant  echoed 
faintly.  It  was  Maruja's  maid,  bringing 
a  note  to  her  young  mistress,  who,  in  a 
flounced  morning  dress,  leaned  against  the 


52  MARUJA. 

window.  Maruja  took  it,  glanced  at  it 
quietly,  folded  it  in  a  long  fold,  and  put  it 
openly  in  her  belt.  Captain  Carroll,  from 
whom  it  came,  might  have  carried  one  of  his 
despatches  as  methodically.  The  waiting- 
woman  noticed  the  act,  and  was  moved  to 
suggest  some  more  exciting  confidences. 

"  The  Dona  Maruja  has,  without  doubt, 
noticed  the  bouquet  on  her  dressing-room 
table  from  the  Seiior  Garnier  ?  " 

The  Dona  Maruja  had.  The  Dona  Ma- 
ruja had  also  learned  with  pain  that,  bribed 
by  Judas-like  coin,  Faquita  had  betrayed 
the  secrets  of  her  wardrobe  to  the  extent  of 
furnishing  a  ribbon  from  a  certain  yellow 
dress  to  the  Senor  Buchanan  to  match  with 
a  Chinese  fan.  This  was  intolerable  ! 

Faquita  writhed  in  remorse,  and  averred 
that  through  this  solitary  act  she  has  dis- 
honored her  family. 

The  Dofia  Maruja,  however,  since  it  was 
so,  felt  that  the  only  thing  left  to  do  was  to 
give  her  the  polluted  dress,  and  trust  that 
the  Devil  might  not  fly  away  with  her. 


MARUJA.  53 

Leaving  the  perfectly  consoled  Faquita, 
Maruja  crossed  the  large  hall,  and,  opening 
a  small  door,  entered  a  dark  passage  through 
the  thick  adobe  wall  of  the  old  casa,  and 
apparently  left  the  present  century  behind 
her.  A  peaceful  atmosphere  of  the  past 
surrounded  her  not  only  in  the  low  vaulted 
halls  terminating  in  grilles  or  barred  win- 
dows ;  not  only  in  the  square  chambers 
whose  dark  rich  but  scanty  furniture  was 
only  a  foil  to  the  central  elegance  of  the 
lace-bordered  bed  and  pillows  ;  but  in  a  cer- 
tain mysterious  odor  of  dried  and  desic- 
cated religious  respectability  that  penetrated 
everywhere,  and  made  the  grateful  twilight 
redolent  of  the  generations  of  forgotten 
Guitierrez  who  had  quietly  exhaled  in  the 
old  house.  A  mist  as  of  incense  and  flow- 
ers that  had  lost  their  first  bloom  veiled  the 
vista  of  the  long  corridor,  and  made  the 
staring  blue  sky,  seen  through  narrow  win- 
dows and  loopholes,  glitter  like  mirrors  let 
into  the  walls.  The  chamber  assigned  to 


54  MARUJA. 

the  young  ladies  seemed  half  oratory  and 
half  sleeping-room,  with  a  strange  mingling 
of  the  convent  in  the  bare  white  walls,  hung 
only  with  crucifixes  and  religious  emblems, 
and  of  the  seraglio  in  the  glimpses  of  lazy 
figures,  reclining  in  the  deshabille  of  short 
silken  saya,  low  camisa,  and  dropping  slip- 
pers. In  a  broad  angle  of  the  corridor  giv- 
ing upon  the  patio,  its  balustrade  hung  with 
brightly  colored  scrapes  and  shawls,  sur- 
rounded by  voluble  domestics  and  relations, 
the  mistress  of  the  casa  half  reclined  in  a 
hammock  and  gave  her  noonday  audience. 

Maruja  pushed  her  way  through  the  clus- 
tered stools  and  cushions  to  her  mother's 
side,  kissed  her  on  the  forehead,  and  then 
lightly  perched  herself  like  a  white  dove  on 
the  railing.  Mrs.  Saltonstall,  a  dark,  cor- 
pulent woman,  redeemed  only  from  coarse- 
ness by  a  certain  softness  of  expression  and 
refinement  of  gesture,  raised  her  heavy 
brown  eyes  to  her  daughter's  face. 

"  You  have  not  been  to  bed,  Mara  ?  " 


MARUJA.  55 

"  No,  dear.     Do  I  look  it  ?  " 

"  You  must  lie  down  presently.  They 
tell  me  that  Captain  Carroll  returned  sud- 
denly this  morning." 

"  Do  you  care  ?  " 

"  Who  knows  ?  Amita  does  not  seem 
to  fancy  Jose*,  Este*ban,  Jorge,  or  any  of  her 
cousins.  She  won't  look  at  Juan  Estudillo. 
The  Captain  is  not  bad.  He  is  of  the  gov- 
ernment. He  is  "  — 

"  Not  more  than  ten  leagues  from  here," 
said  Maruja,  playing  with  the  Captain's 
note  in  her  belt.  "  You  can  send  for  him, 
dear  little  mother.  He  will  be  glad." 

"  You  will  ever  talk  lightly  —  like  your 
father!  She  was  not  then  grieved — our 
Amita  — eh?" 

"  She  and  Dorotea  and  the  two  Wilsons 
went  off  with  Raymond  and  your  Scotch 
friend  in  the  wagonette.  She  did  not  cry 
—  to  Raymond." 

"  Good,"  said  Mrs.  Saltonstall,  leaning 
back  in  her  hammock.  "Raymond  is  an 


56  MARUJA. 

old  friend.  You  had  better  take  your  siesta 
now,  child,  to  be  bright  for  dinner.  I  ex- 
pect a  visitor  this  afternoon  —  Dr.  West." 

"  Again  !  What  will  Pereo  say,  little 
mother?  " 

"  Pereo,"  said  the  widow,  sitting  up  again 
in  her  hammock,  with  impatience,  "  Pereo 
is  becoming  intolerable.  The  man  is  as  mad 
as  Don  Quixote  ;  it  is  impossible  to  conceal 
his  eccentric  impertinence  and  interference 
from  strangers,  who  cannot  understand  his 
confidential  position  in  our  house  or  his  long 
service.  There  are  no  more  mayordomos, 
child.  The  Vallejos,  the  Briones,  the  Cas- 
tros,  do  without  them  now.  Dr.  West  says, 
wisely,  they  are  ridiculous  survivals  of  the 
patriarchal  system." 

"And  can  be  replaced  by  intelligent 
strangers,"  interrupted  Maruja,  demurely. 

"  The  more  easily  if  the  patriarchal  sys- 
tem has  not  been  able  to  preserve  the  re- 
spect due  from  children  to  parents.  No, 
Maruja  !  No  ;  I  am  offended.  Do  not 


MARUJA.  57 

touch  me !  And  your  hair  is  coming  down, 
and  your  eyes  have  rings  like  owls.  You 
uphold  this  fanatical  Pereo  because  he  leaves 
you  alone  and  stalks  your  poor  sisters  and 
their  escorts  like  the  Indian,  whose  blood  is 
in  his  veins.  The  saints  only  can  tell  if  he 
did  not  disgust  this  Captain  Carroll  into 
flight.  He  believes  himself  the  sole  custo- 
dian of  the  honor  of  our  family  —  that  he 
has  a  sacred  mission  from  this  Don  Fulano 
of  Koorotora  to  avert  its  fate.  Without 
doubt  he  keeps  up  his  delusions  with  aguar- 
diente, and  passes  for  a  prophet  among  the 
silly  peons  and  servants.  He  frightens  the 
children  with  his  ridiculous  stories,  and 
teaches  them  to  decorate  that  heathen  mound 
as  if  it  were  a  shrine  of  Our  Lady  of  Sor- 
rows. He  was  almost  rude  to  Dr.  West 
yesterday." 

"  But  you  have  encouraged  him  in  his 
confidential  position  here,"  said  Maruja. 
"  You  forget,  my  mother,  how  you  got  him 
to  'duena'  Enriquita  with  the  Colonel 


58  MARUJA. 

Brown ;  how  you  let  him  frighten  the  young 
Englishman  who  was  too  attentive  to  Doro- 
tea ;  how  you  set  him  even  upon  poor  Ray- 
mond, and  failed  so  dismally  that  I  had  to 
take  him  myself  in  hand." 

"  But  if  I  choose  to  charge  him  with  ex- 
planations that  I  cannot  make  myself  with- 
out derogating  from  the  time-honored  hospi- 
tality of  the  casa,  that  is  another  thing.  It 
is  not,"  said  Dona  Maria,  with  a  certain 
massive  dignity,  that,  inconsistent  as  it  was 
with  the  weakness  of  her  argument,  was  not 
without  impressiveness,  "  it  is  not  yet,  Blessed 
Santa  Maria,  that  we  are  obliged  to  take 
notice  ourself  of  the  pretensions  of  every 
guest  beneath  our  roof  like  the  match-mak- 
ing, daughter  -  selling  English  and  Ameri- 
cans. And  then  Pereo  had  tact  and  dis- 
crimination. Now  he  is  mad  !  There  are 
strangers  and  strangers.  The  whole  valley 
is  full  of  them  —  one  can  discriminate,  since 
the  old  families  year  by  year  are  growing 
less." 


MARUJA.  59 

"Surely  not,"  said  Maruja,  innocently. 
"  There  is  the  excellent  Ramierrez,  who  has 
lately  almost  taken  him  a  wife  from  the 
singing-hall  in  San  Francisco ;  he  may  yet 
be  snatched  from  the  fire.  There  is  the 
youthful  Jos£  Castro,  the  sole  padrono  of 
our  national  bull-fight  at  Soquel,  the  famous 
horse-breaker,  and  the  winner  of  I  know  not 
how  many  races.  And  have  we  not  Vin- 
cente  Peralta,  who  will  run,  it  is  said,  for 
the  American  Congress.  He  can  read  and 
write  —  truly  I  have  a  letter  from  him 
here."  She  turned  back  the  folded  slip  of 
Captain  Carroll's  note  and  discovered  an- 
other below. 

Mrs.  Saltonstall  tapped  her  daughter's 
hand  with  her  fan.  "  You  jest  at  them,  yet 
you  uphold  Pereo  !  Go,  now,  and  sleep  your- 
self into  a  better  frame  of  mind.  Stop !  I 
hear  the  Doctor's  horse.  Run  and  see  that 
Pereo  receives  him  properly." 

Maruja  had  barely  entered  the  dark  cor- 
ridor when  she  came  upon  the  visitor,  —  a 


60  MARUJA. 

gray,  hard-featured  man  of  sixty,  —  who  had 
evidently  entered  without  ceremony.  "  I  see 
you  did  not  wait  to  be  announced,"  she  said, 
sweetly.  "  My  mother  will  be  flattered  by 
your  impatience.  You  will  find  her  in  the 
patio." 

"  Pereo  did  not  announce  me,  as  he  was 
probably  still  under  the  effect  of  the  aguar- 
diente he  swallowed  yesterday,"  said  the 
Doctor,  dryly.  "  I  met  him  outside  the 
tienda  on  the  highway  the  other  night,  talk- 
ing to  a  pair  of  cut-throats  that  I  would 
shoot  on  sight." 

"  The  mayordomo  has  many  purchases  to 
make,  and  must  meet  a  great  many  people," 
said  Maruja.  "  What  would  you?  We  can- 
not select  his  acquaintances  \  "we  can  hardly 
choose  our  own,"  she  added,  sweetly. 

The  Doctor  hesitated,  as  if  to  reply,  and 
then,  with  a  grim  "  Good-morning,"  passed 
on  towards  the  patio.  Maruja  did  not  fol- 
low him.  Her  attention  was  suddenly  ab-. 
sorbed  by  a  hitherto  unnoticed  motionless 


MARUJA.  61 

figure,  that  seemed  to  be  hiding  in  the 
shadow  of  an  angle  of  the  passage,  as  if 
waiting  for  her  to  pass.  The  keen  eyes  of 
the  daughter  of  Joseph  Saltonstall  were  not 
deceived.  She  walked  directly  towards  the 
figure,  and  said,  sharply,  "  Pereo  !  " 

The  figure  came  hesitatingly  forward  into 
the  light  of  the  grated  window.  It  was  that 
of  an  old  man,  still  tall  and  erect,  though 
the  hair  had  disappeared  from  his  temples, 
and  hung  in  two  or  three  straight,  long  dark 
elf-locks  on  his  neck.  His  face,  over  which 
one  of  the  bars  threw  a  sinister  shadow,  was 
the  yellow  of  a  dried  tobacco-leaf,  and  veined 
as  strongly.  His  garb  was  a  strange  min- 
gling of  the  vaquero  and  the  ecclesiastic  — 
velvet  trousers,  open  from  the  knee  down, 
and  fringed  with  bullion  buttons  ;  a  broad 
red  sash  around  his  waist,  partly  hidden  by 
a  long,  straight  chaqueta;  with  a  circular 
sacerdotal  cape  of  black  broadcloth  slipped 
over  his  head  through  a  slit-like  opening 
braided  with  gold.  His  restless  yellow  eyes 


62  MARUJA. 

fell  before  the  young  girl's ;  and  the  stiff, 
varnished,  hard-brimmed  sombrero  he  held 
in  his  wrinkled  hands  trembled. 

"  You  are  spying  again,  Pereo,"  said  Ma- 
ruja,  in  another  dialect  than  the  one  she  had 
used  to  her  mother.  "  It  is  unworthy  of  my 
father's  trusted  servant." 

"  It  is  that  man  —  that  coyote,  Dona  Ma- 
ruja,  that  is  unworthy  of  your  father,  of 
your  mother,  of  you  !  "  he  gesticulated,  in  a 
fierce  whisper.  "  I,  Pereo,  do  not  spy.  I 
follow,  follow  the  track  of  the  prowling, 
stealing  brute  until  I  run  him  down.  Yes, 
it  was  /,  Pereo,  who  warned  your  father  he 
would  not  be  content  with  the  half  of  the 
land  he  stole !  It  was  I,  Pereo,  who  warned 
your  mother  that  each  time  he  trod  the  soil 
of  La  Mision  Perdida  he  measured  the  land 
he  could  take  away ! "  He  stopped  pant- 
ingly,  with  the  insane  abstraction  of  a  fixed 
idea  glittering  in  his  eyes. 

"  And  it  was  you,  Pereo,"  she  said,  caress- 
ingly, laying  her  soft  hand  on  his  heaving 


MARUJA.  63 

breast,  "  you  who  carried  me  in  your  arms 
when  I  was  a  child.  It  was  you,  Pereo,  who 
took  me  before  you  on  your  pinto  horse  to 
the  rodeo,  when  no  one  knew  it  but  our- 
selves, my  Pereo,  was  it  not?  "  He  nodded 
his  head  violently.  "  It  was  you  who  showed 
me  the  gallant  caballeros,  the  Pachecos,  the 
Castros,  the  Alvarados,  the  Estudillos,  the 
Peraltas,  the  Vallejos."  His  head  kept  time 
with  each  name  as  the  fire  dimmed  in  his 
wet  eyes.  "You  made  me  promise  I  would 
not  forget  them  for  the  Americanos  who  were 
here.  Good !  That  was  years  ago  !  I  am 
older  now.  I  have  seen  many  Americans. 
Well,  I  am  still  free!" 

He  caught  her  hand,  and  raised  it  to  his 
lips  with  a  gesture  almost  devotional.  His 
eyes  softened  ;  as  the  exaltation  of  passion 
passed,  his  voice  dropped  into  the  querulous- 
ness  of  privileged  age.  "Ah,  yes! — you, 
the  first-born,  the  heiress  —  of  a  verity,  yes ! 
You  were  ever  a  Guitierrez.  But  the  others  ? 
Eh,  where  are  they  now?  And  it  was  al- 


64  MARUJA. 

ways :  '  Eh,  Pereo,  what  shall  we  do  to-day  ? 
Pereo,  good  Pereo,  we  are  asked  to  ride  here 
and  there ;  we  are  expected  to  visit  the  new 
people  in  the  valley  —  what  say  you,  Pereo  ? 
Who  shall  we  dine  to-day  ? '  Or  :  *  Enquire 
me  of  this  or  that  strange  caballero  —  and  if 
we  may  speak.'  Ah,  it  is  but  yesterday  that 
Amita  would  say :  '  Lend  me  thine  o\vn 
horse,  Pereo,  that  I  may  outstrip  this  swag- 
gering Americano  that  clings  ever  to  my 
side,'  ha !  ha !  Or  the  grave  Dorotea  would 
whisper :  '  Convey  to  this  Senor  Presumptu- 
ous Pomposo  that  the  daughters  of  Guitier- 
rez  do  not  ride  alone  with  strangers ! '  Or 
even  the  little  Liseta  would  say,  he!  he! 
'Why  does  the  stranger  press  my  foot  in  his 
great  hand  when  he  helps  me  into  the  sad- 
dle ?  Tell  him  that  is  not  the  way,  Pereo.' 
Ha !  ha  1 "  He  laughed  childishly,  and 
stopped.  "And  why  does  Senorita  Amita 
now  —  look  —  complain  that  Pereo,  old  Pe- 
reo, comes  between  her  and  this  Senor  Ray- 
mond —  the  maquinista  ?  Eh,  and  why  does 


MARUJA.  65 

she,  the  lady  mother,  the  Castellana,  shut 
Pereo  from  her  councils  ?  "  he  went  on,  with 
rising  excitement.  "  What  are  these  secret 
meetings,  eh?  —  what  these  appointments, 
alone  with  this  Judas  —  without  the  family 
—  without  me  !  " 

"  Hearken,  Pereo,"  said  the  young  girl, 
again  laying  her  hand  on  the  old  man's 
shoulder ;  "  you  have  spoken  truly  —  but 
you  forget  —  the  years  pass.  These  are  no 
longer  strangers;  old  friends  have  gone  — 
these  have  taken  their  place.  My  father 
forgave  the  Doctor  —  why  cannot  you  ?  For 
the  rest,  believe  in  me  — me  —  Maruja  "  — 
she  dramatically  touched  her  heart  over  the 
international  complications  of  the  letters  of 
Captain  Carroll  and  Peralta.  "  I  will  see 
that  the  family  honor  does  not  suffer.  And 
now,  good  Pereo,  calm  thyself.  Not  with 
aguardiente,  but  with  a  bottle  of  old  wine 
from  the  Mision  refectory  that  I  will  send  to 
thee.  It  was  given  to  me  by  thy  friend, 
Padre  Miguel,  and  is  from  the  old  vines 


66  MARUJA. 

that  were  here.  Courage,  Pereo !  And 
thou  sayest  that  Amita  complains  that  thou 
coinest  between  her  and  Raymond.  So ! 
What  matter?  Let  it  cheer  thy  heart  to 
know  that  I  have  summoned  the  Peraltas, 
the  Pachecos,  the  Estudillos,  all  thy  old 
friends,  to  dine  here  to-day.  Thou  wilt  hear 
the  old  names,  even  if  the  faces  are  young  to 
thee.  Courage !  Do  thy  duty,  old  friend  ; 
let  them  see  that  the  hospitality  of  La  Mi- 
sion  Perdida  does  not  grow  old,  if  its  mayor- 
domo  does.  Faquita  will  bring  thee  the 
wine.  No  ;  not  that  way ;  thou  needest  not 
pass  the  patio,  nor  meet  that  man  again. 
Here,  give  me  thy  hand,  I  will  lead  thee. 
It  trembles,  Pereo !  These  are  not  the  sin- 
ews that  only  two  years  ago  pulled  down  the 
bull  at  Soquel  with  thy  single  lasso !  Why, 
look !  I  can  drag  thee ;  see  !  "  and  with  a 
light  laugh  and  a  boyish  gesture,  she  half 
pulled,  half  dragged  him  along,  until  their 
voices  were  lost  in  the  dark  corridor. 

Maruja  kept  her  word.     When  the   sun 


MARUJA.  67 

began  to  cast  long  shadows  along  the  ve- 
randa, not  only  the  outer  shell  of  La  Mision 
Perdida,  but  the  dark  inner  heart  of  the  old 
casa,  stirred  with  awakened  life.  Single 
horsemen  and  carriages  began  to  arrive ; 
and,  mingled  with  the  modern  turn-outs  of 
the  home  party  and  the  neighboring  Amer- 
icans, were  a  few  of  the  cumbrous  vehicles 
and  chariots  of  fifty  years  ago,  drawn  by 
gayly  trapped  mules  with  bizarre  postilions, 
and  occasionally  an  outrider.  Dark  faces 
looked  from  the  balcony  of  the  patio,  a  light 
cloud  of  cigarette-smoke  made  the  dark  cor- 
ridors the  more  obscure,  and  mingled  with 
the  forgotten  incense.  Bare-headed  pretty 
women,  with  roses  starring  their  dark  hair, 
wandered  with  childish  curiosity  along  the 
broad  veranda  and  in  and  out  of  the  French 
windows  that  opened  upon  the  grand  saloon. 
Scrupulously  shaved  men  with  olive  com- 
plexion, stout  men  with  accurately  curving 
whiskers  meeting  at  their  dimpled  chins, 
lounged  about  with  a  certain  unconscious 


68  MARUJA. 

dignity  that  made  them  contentedly  indiffer- 
ent to  any  novelty  of  their  surroundings. 
For  a  while  the  two  races  kept  mechanically 
apart ;  but,  through  the  tactful  gallantry  of 
Gamier,  the  cynical  familiarity  of  Raymond, 
and  the  impulsive  recklessness  of  Aladdin, 
who  had  forsaken  his  enchanted  Palace  on 
the  slightest  of  invitations,  and  returned  with 
the  party  in  the  hope  of  again  seeing  the 
Princess  of  China,  an  interchange  of  civili- 
ties, of  gallantries,  and  even  of  confidences, 
at  last  took  place.  Jovita  Castro  had  heard 
(who  had  not  ?)  of  the  wonders  of  Aladdin's 
Palace,  and  was  it  of  actual  truth  that  the 
ladies  had  a  bouquet  and  a  fan  to  match 
their  dress  presented  to  them  every  morning, 
and  that  the  gentlemen  had  a  champagne 
cocktail  sent  to  their  rooms  before  break- 
fast? "Just  you  come,  Miss,  and  bring 
your  father  and  your  brothers,  and  stay  a 
week  and  you'll  see,"  responded  Aladdin, 
gallantly.  "  Hold  on !  What 's  your  father's 
first  name  ?  I  '11  send  a  team  over  there  for 


MARUJA.  69 

you  to-morrow."  "  And  is  it  true  that  you 
frightened  the  handsome  Captain  Carroll 
away  from  Amita  ? "  said  Dolores  Briones, 
over  the  edge  of  her  fan  to  Raymond.  "  Per- 
fectly," said  Raymond,  with  ingenuous  frank- 
ness. "  I  made  it  a  matter  of  life  or  death. 
He  was  a  soldier,  and  naturally  preferred 
the  former  as  giving  him  a  better  chance  for 
promotion."  "  Ah  !  we  thought  it  was  Ma- 
ruja  you  liked  best."  '*  That  was  two  years 
ago,"  said  Raymond,  gravely.  "  And  you 
Americanos  can  change  in  that  time  ?  "  "I 
have  just  experienced  that  it  can  be  done  in 
less,"  he  responded,  over  the  fan,  with  be- 
wildering significance.  Nor  were  these  con- 
fidences confined  to  only  one  nationality. 
"  I  always  thought  you  Spanish  gentlemen 
were  very  dark,  and  wore  long  moustaches 
and  a  cloak,"  said  pretty  little  Miss  Walker, 
gazing  frankly  into  the  smooth  round  face 
of  the  eldest  Pacheco  —  "  why,  you  are  as 
fair  as  I  am."  "  Eaf  I  tink  that,  I  am  for 
ever  mizzarable,"  he  replied,  with  grave  mel- 


70  MARUJA. 

ancholy.  In  the  dead  silence  that  followed 
he  was  enabled  to  make  his  decorous  point. 
"  Because  I  shall  not  ezcape  ze  fate  of  Nar- 
cissus." Mr.  Buchanan,  with  the  unre- 
strained and  irresponsible  enjoyment  of  a 
traveler,  entered  fully  into  the  spirit  of  the 
scene.  He  even  found  words  of  praise  for 
Aladdin,  whose  extravagance  had  at  first 
seemed  to  him  almost  impious.  "  Eh,  but 
I  'm  not  prepared  to  say  he  is  a  fool,  either," 
he  remarked  to  his  friend  the  San  Francisco 
banker.  "Those  who  try  to  pick  him  up 
for  one,"  returned  the  banker,  "will  find 
themselves  mistaken.  His  is  the  prodigality 
that  loosens  others'  purse-strings  besides  his 
own.  Everybody  contents  himself  with  crit- 
icising his  way  of  spending  money,  but  is 
ready  to  follow  his  way  of  making  it." 

The  dinner  was  more  formal,  and  when 
the  mistress  of  the  house,  massive  in  black 
silk,  velvet  and  gold  embroidery,  moved  like 
a  pageant  to  the  head  of  her  table,  where 
she  remained  like  a  sacerdotal  effigy,  not 


MARUJA.  71 

even  the  presence  of  the  practical  Scotch- 
man at  her  side  could  remove  the  prevail- 
ing sense  of  restraint.  For  a  while  the  con- 
versation of  the  relatives  might  have  been 
brought  with  them  in  their  antique  vehicles 
of  fifty  years  ago,  so  faded,  so  worn,  and  so 
springless  it  was.  General  Pico  related  the 
festivities  at  Monterey,  on  the  occasion  of 
the  visit  of  Sir  George  Simpson  early  in  the 
present  century,  of  which  he  was  an  eye- 
witness, with  great  precision  of  detail.  Don 
Juan  Estudillo  was  comparatively  frivolous, 
with  anecdotes  of  Louis  Philippe,  whom  he 
had  seen  in  Paris.  Far-seeing  Pedro  Gui- 
tierrez  was  gloomily  impressed  with  a  Mon- 
golian invasion  of  California  by  the  Chinese, 
in  which  the  prevailing  religion  would  be 
supplanted  by  heathen  temples,  and  polygamy 
engrafted  on  the  Constitution.  Everybody 
agreed,  however,  that  the  vital  question  of 
the  hour  was  the  settlement  of  land  titles  — 
Americans  who  claimed  under  preemption 
and  the  native  holders  of  Spanish  grants 


72  MARUJA. 

were  equally  of  the  opinion.  In  the  midst 
of  this  the  musical  voice  of  Maruja  was 
heard  asking,  "  What  is  a  tramp?  " 

Raymond,  on  her  right,  was  ready  but  not 
conclusive.  A  tramp,  if  he  could  sing, 
would  be  a  troubadour;  if  he  could  pray, 
would  be  a  pilgrim  friar  —  in  either  case  a 
natural  object  of  womanly  solicitude.  But 
as  he  could  do  neither,  he  was  simply  a 
curse. 

"  And  you  think  that  is  not  an  object  of 
womanly  solicitude  ?  But  that  does  not  tell 
me  what  he  is." 

A  dozen  gentlemen,  swept  in  the  radius 
of  those  softly-inquiring  eyes,  here  started 
to  explain.  From  them  it  appeared  that 
there  was  no  such  thing  in  California  as  a 
tramp,  and  there  were  also  a  dozen  varieties 
of  tramp  in  California. 

"  But  is  he  always  very  uncivil  ?  "  asked 
Maruja. 

Again  there  were  conflicting  opinions. 
You  might  have  to  shoot  him  on  sight,  and 


MARUJA.  73 

you  might  have  him  invariably  run  from 
you.  When  the  question  was  finally  settled, 
Maruja  was  found  to  have  become  absorbed 
in  conversation  with  some  one  else. 

Amita,  a  taller  copy  of  Maruja,  and  more 
regularly  beautiful,  had  built  up  a  little  pile 
of  bread  crumbs  between  herself  and  Ray- 
mond, and  was  listening  to  him  with  a  cer- 
tain shy,  girlish  interest  that  was  as  incon- 
sistent with  the  serene  regularity  of  her  face 
as  Maruja's  self-possessed,  subtle  intelli- 
gence was  incongruous  to  her  youthful  figure. 
Raymond's  voice,  when  he  addressed  Amita, 
was  low  and  earnest ;  not  from  any  signifi- 
cance of  matter,  but  from  its  frank  confiden- 
tial quality. 

"They  are  discussing  the  new  railroad 
project,  and  your  relations  are  all  opposed 
to  it ;  to-morrow  they  will  each  apply  pri- 
vately to  Aladdin  for  the  privilege  of  sub- 
scribing." "  I  have  never  seen  a  railroad," 
said  Amita,  slightly  coloring  ;  "  but  you  are 
an  engineer,  and  I  know  they  must  be  some- 
thing very  clever." 


74  MARUJA. 

Notwithstanding  the  coolness  of  the  night, 
a  full  moon  drew  the  guests  to  the  veranda, 
where  coffee  was  served,  and  where,  myste- 
riously muffled  in  cloaks  and  shawls,  the 
party  took  upon  itself  the  appearance  of 
groups  of  dominoed  masqueraders,  scattered 
along  the  veranda  and  on  the  broad  steps  of 
the  porch  in  gypsy-like  encampments,  from 
whose  cloaked  shadow  the  moonlight  occa- 
sionally glittered  upon  a  varnished  boot  or 
peeping  satin  slipper.  Two  or  three  of 
these  groups  had  resolved  themselves  into 
detached  couples,  who  wandered  down  the 
acacia  walk  to  the  sound  of  a  harp  in  the 
grand  saloon  or  the  occasional  uplifting  of 
a  thin  Spanish  tenor.  Two  of  these  couples 
were  Maruja  and  Gamier,  followed  by  Amita 
and  Raymond. 

"  You  are  restless  to-night,  Maruja,"  said 
Amita,  shyly  endeavoring  to  make  a  show 
of  keeping  up  with  her  sister's  boyish  stride, 
in  spite  of  Raymond's  reluctance.  "  You 
are  paying  for  your  wakefulness  to-day." 


MARUJA.  75 

The  same  idea  passed  through  the  minds 
of  both  men.  She  was  missing  the  excite- 
ment of  Captain  Carroll's  presence. 

"  The  air  is  so  refreshing  away  from  the 
house,"  responded  Maruja,  with  a  bright 
energy  that  belied  any  suggestion  of  fatigue 
or  moral  disquietude.  "I'm  tired  of  run- 
ning against  those  turtle-doves  in  the  walks 
and  bushes.  Let  us  keep  on  to  the  lane. 
If  you  are  tired,  Mr.  Eaymond  will  give  you 
his  arm." 

They  kept  on,  led  by  the  indomitable  little 
figure,  who,  for  once,  did  not  seem  to  linger 
over  the  attentions,  both  piquant  and  tender, 
with  which  Gamier  improved  his  opportu- 
nity. Given  a  shadowy  lane,  a  lovers'  moon, 
a  pair  of  bright  and  not  unkindly  eyes,  a 
charming  and  not  distant  figure  —  what 
more  could  he  want  ?  Yet  he  wished  she 
had  n't  walked  so  fast.  One  might  be  vi- 
vacious, audacious,  brilliant,  at  an  Indian 
trot ;  but  impassioned  —  never  I  The  pace 
increased  ;  they  were  actually  hurrying. 


76  MARUJA. 

More  than  that,  Maruja  had  struck  into  a 
little  trot ;  her  lithe  body  swaying  from  side 
to  side,  her  little  feet  straight  as  an  arrow 
before  her;  accompanying  herself  with  a 
quaint  musical  chant,  which  she  obligingly 
explained  had  been  taught  her  as  a  child 
by  Pereo.  They  stopped  only  at  the  hedge, 
where  she  had  that  morning  encountered 
the  tramp. 

There  is  little  doubt  that  the  rest  of  the 
party  was  disconcerted :  Amita,  whose  fig- 
ure was  not  adapted  to  this  Camilla-like 
exercise ;  Raymond,  who  was  annoyed  at 
the  poor  girl's  discomfiture ;  and  Gamier, 
who  had  lost  a  golden  opportunity,  with  the 
faint  suspicion  of  having  looked  ridiculous. 
Only  Maruja's  eyes,  or  rather  the  eyes  of 
her  lamented  father,  seemed  to  enjoy  it. 

"  You  are  too  effeminate,"  she  said,  lean- 
ing against  the  fence,  and  shading  her  eyes 
with  her  fan,  as  she  glanced  around  in  the 
staring  moonlight.  "  Civilization  has  taken 
away  your  legs.  A  man  ought  to  be  able  to 


MARUJA.  77 

trust  to  his  feet  all  day,  and  to  nothing 
else." 

"  In  fact  —  a  tramp,"  suggested  Ray- 
mond. 

"  Possibly.  I  think  I  should  like  to  have 
been  a  gypsy,  and  to  have  wandered  about, 
finding  a  new  home  every  night." 

"And  a  change  of  linen  on  the  early 
morning  hedges,"  said  Raymond.  "  But  do 
you  think  seriously  that  you  and  your  sister 
are  suitably  clad  to  commence  to-night  ?  It 
is  bitterly  cold,"  he  added,  turning  up  his 
collar.  "  Could  you  begin  by  showing  a 
pal  the  nearest  haystack  or  hen-roost  ?  " 

"  Sybarite  !  "  She  cast  a  long  look  over 
the  fields  and  down  the  lane.  Suddenly  she 
started.  "  What  is  that  ?" 

She  pointed  to  a  tall  erect  figure  slowly 
disappearing  on  the  other  side  of  the  hedge. 

"  It  's  Pereo,  only  Pereo.  I  knew  him  by 
his  long  serape,"  said  Gamier,  who  was 
nearest  the  hedge,  complacently.  "  But 
what  is  surprising,  he  was  not  there  when 


78  MARUJA. 

we  came,  nor  did  he  come  out  of  that  open 
field.  He  must  have  been  walking  behind 
us  on  the  other  side  of  the  hedge." 

The  eyes  of  the  two  girls  sought  each 
other  simultaneously,  but  not  without  Ray- 
mond's observant  glance.  Amita's  brow 
darkened  as  she  moved  to  her  sister's  side, 
and  took  her  arm  with  a  confidential  pres- 
sure that  was  returned.  The  two  men,  with 
a  vague  consciousness  of  some  contretemps, 
dropped  a  pace  behind,  and  began  to  talk  to 
each  other,  leaving  the  sisters  to  exchange  a 
few  words  in  a  low  tone  as  they  slowly  re- 
turned to  the  house. 

Meanwhile,  Pereo's  tall  figure  had  disap- 
peared in  the  shrubbery,  to  emerge  again  in 
the  open  area  by  the  summer-house  and  the 
old  pear-tree.  The  red  sparks  of  two  or 
three  cigarettes  in  the  shadow  of  the  sum- 
mer-house, and  the  crouching  forms  of  two 
shawled  women  came  forward  to  greet  him. 

"  And  what  hast  thou  heard,  Pereo  ?  " 
said  one  of  the  women. 


MARUJA.  79 

"  Nothing,"  said  Pereo,  impatiently.  "  I 
told  tliee  I  would  answer  for  this  little  pri- 
mogenita  with  my  life.  She  is  but  leading 
this  Frenchman  a  dance,  as  she  has  led  the 
others,  and  the  Dona  Amita  and  her  Ray- 
mond are  but  wax  in  her  hands.  Besides,  I 
have  spoken  with  the  little  'Ruja  to-day,  and 
spoke  my  mind,  Pepita,  and  she  says  there 
is  nothing." 

"  And  whilst  thou  wert  speaking  to  her, 
my  poor  Pereo,  the  devil  of  an  American 
Doctor  was  speaking  to  her  mother,  thy  mis- 
tress—  our  mistress,  Pereo !  Wouldst  thou 
know  what  he  said  ?  Oh,  it  was  nothing." 

"Now,  the  curse  of  Koorotora  on  thee, 
Pepita  !  "  said  Pereo,  excitedly.  "  Speak, 
fool,  if  thou  knowest  anything !  " 

"  Of  a  verity,  no.  Let  Faquita,  then, 
speak  :  she  heard  it."  She  reached  out  her 
hand,  and  dragged  Maruja's  maid,  not  un- 
willing, before  the  old  man. 

"Good!  'Tis  Faquita,  daughter  of  Go- 
mez, and  a  child  of  the  land.  Speak,  little 


80  MARUJA. 

one.  What  said  this  coyote  to  the  mother 
of  thy  mistress  ?  " 

"  Truly,  good  Pereo,  it  was  but  accident 
that  befriended  me." 

"  Truly,  for  thy  mistress's  sake,  I  hoped 
it  had  been  more.  But  let  that  go.  Come, 
what  said  he,  child  ?  " 

"  I  was  hanging  up  a  robe  behind  the 
curtain  in  the  oratory  when  Pepita  ushered 
in  the  Americano.  I  had  no  time  to  fly." 

"  Why  shouldst  thou  fly  from  a  dog  like 
this  ? "  said  one  of  the  cigarette-smokers 
who  had  drawn  near. 

"  Peace  !  "  said  the  old  man. 

"  When  the  Dona  Maria  joined  him  they 
spoke  of  affairs.  Yes,  Pereo,  she,  thy  mis- 
tress, spoke  of  affairs  to  this  man  —  ay,  as 
she  might  have  talked  to  thee.  And,  could 
he  advise  this  ?  and  could  he  counsel  that  ? 
and  should  the  cattle  be  taken  from  the 
lower  lands,  and  the  fields  turned  to  grain  ? 
and  had  he  a  purchaser  for  Los  Osos  ?  " 

"  Los  Osos !     It  is  the  boundary  land  — 


MARUJA.  81 

the  frontier  —  the  line  of  the  arroyo  —  older 
than  the  Mision,"  muttered  Pereo. 

"  Ay,  and  he  talked  of  the  —  the  —  I 
know  not  what  it  is  !  — the  r-r-rail-r-road." 

"  The  railroad,"  gasped  the  old  man.  "  I 
will  tell  thee  what  it  is  !  It  is  the  cut  of  a 
burning  knife  through  La  Mision  Perdida 
—  as  long  as  eternity,  as  dividing  as  death. 
On  either  side  of  that  gash  life  is  blasted ; 
wherever  that  cruel  steel  is  laid  the  track  of 
it  is  livid  and  barren ;  it  cuts  down  all  bar- 
riers; leaps  all  boundaries,  be  they  Canada 
or  canon ;  it  is  a  torrent  in  the  plain,  a  tor- 
nado in  the  forest ;  its  very  pathway  is 
destruction  to  whoso  crosses  it  —  man  or 
beast ;  it  is  the  heathenish  God  of  the  Amer- 
icanos ;  they  build  temples  for  it,  and  flock 
there  and  worship  it  whenever  it  stops, 
breathing  fire  and  flame  like  a  very  Moloch." 

"Eh!  St.  Anthony  preserve  us!"  said 
Faquita,  shuddering ;  "  and  yet  they  spoke 
of  it  as  '  shares '  and  '  stocks,'  and  said  it 
would  double  the  price  of  corn." 


82  MARUJA. 

"Now,  Judas  pursue  thee  and  thy  rail- 
road, Pereo,"  said  Pepita,  impatiently.  "  It 
is  not  such  bagatela  that  Faquita  is  here  to 
relate.  Go  on,  child,  and  tell  all  that  hap- 
pened." 

"  And  then,"  continued  Faquita,  with  a 
slight  affectation  of  maiden  bashfulness,  in 
the  closer-drawing  circle  of  cigarettes,  "  and 
then  they  talked  of  other  things  and  of  them- 
selves; and,  of  a  verity,  this  gray-bearded 
Doctor  will  play  the  goat  and  utter  gallant 
speeches,  and  speak  of  a  life-long  devotion 
and  of  the  time  he  should  have  a  right  to 
protect". — 

"  The  right,  girl !  Didst  thou  say  the 
right?  No,  thou  didst  mistake.  It  was 
not  that  he  meant  ?  " 

"  Thy  life  to  a  quarter  peso  that  the  little 
Faquita  does  not  mistake,"  said  the  evident 
satirist  of  the  household.  "  Trust  to  Gomez' 
muchacha  to  understand  a  proposal." 

When  the  laugh  was  over,  and  the  sparks 
of  the  cigaretto,  cleverly  whipped  out  of  the 


MARUJA.  83 

speaker's  lips  by  Faquita's  fan,  had  disap- 
peared in  the  darkness,  she  resumed,  pet- 
tishly, "  I  know  not  what  you  call  it  when 
he  kissed  her  hand  and  held  it  to  his  heart." 

"  Judas  !  "  gasped  Pereo.  "  But,"  he 
added,  feverishly,  "  she,  the  Dona  Maria, 
thy  mistress,  she  summoned  thee  at  once  to 
call  me  to  cast  out  this  dust  into  the  open 
air ;  thou  didst  fly  to  her  assistance  ?  What  I 
thou  sawest  this,  and  did  nothing  —  eh?" 
He  stopped,  and  tried  to  peer  into  the  girl's 
face.  "  No !  Ah,  I  see ;  I  am  an  old  fool. 
Yes ;  it  was  Maruja's  own  mother  that  stood 
there.  He !  he !  he !  "  he  laughed  piteously ; 
"  and  she  smiled  and  smiled  and  broke  the 
coward's  heart,  as  Maruja  might.  And  when 
he  was  gone,  she  bade  thee  bring  her  water 
to  wash  the  filthy  Judas  stain  from  her 
hand." 

"Santa  Ana!"  said  Faquita,  shrugging 
her  shoulders.  "  She  did  what  the  veriest 
muchacha  would  have  done.  When  he  had 
gone,  she  sat  down  and  cried." 


84  MARUJA. 

The  old  man  drew  back  a  step,  and  stead- 
ied himself  by  the  table.  Then,  with  a  cer- 
tain tremulous  audacity,  he  began  :  "  So  ! 
that  is  all  you  have  to  tell  —  nothing !  Bah  ! 
A  lazy  slut  sleeps  at  her  duty,  and  dreams 
behind  a  curtain !  Yes,  dreams  !  —  you  un- 
derstand —  dreams  I  And  for  this  she  leaves 
her  occupations,  and  comes  to  gossip  here ! 
Come,"  he  continued,  steadily  working  him- 
self into  a  passion,  "  come,  enough  of  this ! 
Get  you  gone !  —  you,  and  Pepita,  and  An- 
dreas, and  Victor  —  all  of  you  —  back  to 
your  duty.  Away !  Am  I  not  master  here  ? 
Off!  I  say!" 

There  was  no  mistaking  the  rising  anger 
of  his  voice.  The  cowed  group  rose  in  a 
frightened  way  and  disappeared  one  by  one 
silently  through  the  labyrinth.  Pereo  waited 
until  the  last  had  vanished,  and  then,  cram- 
ming his  stiff  sombrero  over  his  eyes  with 
an  ejaculation,  brushed  his  way  through  the 
shrubbery  in  the  direction  of  the  stables. 

Later,  when  the  full  glory  of  the  midnight 


MARUJA.  85 

moon  had  put  out  every  straggling  light  in 
the  great  house ;  when  the  long  veranda  slept 
in  massive  bars  of  shadow,  and  even  the 
trade-winds  were  hushed  to  repose,  Pereo 
silently  issued  from  the  stable-yard  in  va- 
quero's  dress,  mounted  and  caparisoned. 
Picking  his  way  cautiously  along  the  turf- 
bordered  edge  of  the  gravel  path,  he  noise- 
lessly reached  a  gate  that  led  to  the  lane. 
Walking  his  spirited  mustang  with  difficulty 
until  the  house  had  at  last  disappeared  in 
the  intervening  foliage,  he  turned  with  an 
easy  canter  into  a  border  bridle-path  that 
seemed  to  lead  to  the  Canada.  In  a  quarter 
of  an  hour  he  had  reached  a  low  amphi- 
theatre of  meadows,  shut  in  a  half  circle  of 
grassy  treeless  hills. 

Here,  putting  spurs  to  his  horse,  he  en- 
tered upon  a  singular  exercise.  Twice  he 
made  a  circuit  of  the  meadow  at  a  wild  gal- 
lop, with  flying  serape  and  loosened  rein,  and 
twice  returned.  The  third  time  his  speed 
increased ;  the  ground  seemed  to  stream  from 


86  MARUJA. 

under  him  ;  in  the  distance  the  limbs  of  his 
steed  became  invisible  in  their  furious  ac- 
tion, and,  lying  low  forward  on  his  mustang's 
neck,  man  and  horse  passed  like  an  arrowy 
bolt  around  the  circle.  Then  something  like 
a  light  ring  of  smoke  up-curved  from  the 
saddle  before  him,  and,  slowly  uncoiling  it- 
self in  mid  air,  dropped  gently  to  the  ground 
as  he  passed.  Again,  and  once  again,  the 
shadowy  coil  sped  upward  and  onward,  slowly 
detaching  its  snaky  rings  with  a  weird  delib- 
eration that  was  in  strange  contrast  to  the 
impetuous  onset  of  the  rider,  and  yet  seemed 
a  part  of  his  fury.  And  then  turning,  Pereo 
trotted  gently  to  the  centre  of  the  circle. 

Here  he  divested  himself  of  his  serape, 
and,  securing  it  in  a  cylindrical  roll,  placed 
it  upright  on  the  ground  and  once  more  sped 
away  on  his  furious  circuit.  But  this  time 
he  wheeled  suddenly  before  it  was  half  com- 
pleted and  bore  down  directly  upon  the  un- 
conscious object.  Within  a  hundred  feet 
he  swerved  slightly  ;  the  long  detaching 


•MARUJA.  87 

rings  again  writhed  in  mid  air  and  softly 
descended  as  he  thundered  past.  But  when 
he  had  reached  the  line  of  circuit  again,  he 
turned  and  made  directly  for  the  road  he 
had  entered.  Fifty  feet  behind  his  horse's 
heels,  at  the  end  of  a  shadowy  cord,  the 
luckless  serape  was  dragging  and  bounding 
after  him ! 

"  The  old  man  is  quiet  enough  this  morn- 
ing," said  Andreas,  as  he  groomed  the 
sweat-dried  skin  of  the  mustang  the  next 
day.  "  It  is  easy  to  see,  friend  Pinto,  that 
he  has  worked  off  his  madness  on  thee." 


CHAPTER  IV. 

THE  Rancho  of  San  Antonio  might  have 
been  a  characteristic  asylum  for  its  blessed 
patron,  offering  as  it  did  a  secure  retreat 
from  temptations  for  the  carnal  eye,  and 
affording  every  facility  for  uninterrupted 
contemplation  of  the  sky  above,  unbroken 
by  tree  or  elevation.  Unlike  La  Mision 
Perdida,  of  which  it  had  been  part,  it  was 
a  level  plain  of  rich  adobe,  half  the  year 
presenting  a  billowy  sea  of  tossing  verdure 
breaking  on  the  far-off  horizon  line,  half  the 
year  presenting  a  dry  and  dusty  shore,  from 
which  the  vernal  sea  had  ebbed,  to  the  low 
sky  that  seemed  to  mock  it  with  a  visionary 
sea  beyond.  A  row  of  rough,  irregular, 
and  severely  practical  sheds  and  buildings 
housed  the  machinery  and  the  fifty  or  sixty 
men  employed  in  the  cultivation  of  the  soil, 


MARUJA.  89 

but  neither  residential  mansion  nor  farm- 
house offered  any  nucleus  of  rural  comfort  or 
civilization  in  the  midst  of  this  wild  expanse 
of  earth  and  sky.  The  simplest  adjuncts 
of  country  life  were  unknown :  milk  and 
butter  were  brought  from  the  nearest  town  ; 
weekly  supplies  of  fresh  meat  and  vegeta- 
bles came  from  the  same  place ;  in  the  har- 
vest season,  the  laborers  and  harvesters 
lodged  and  boarded  in  the  adjacent  settle- 
ment and  walked  to  their  work.  No  culti- 
vated flower  bloomed  beside  the  unpainted 
tenement,  though  the  fields  were  starred  in 
early  spring  with  poppies  and  daisies ;  the 
humblest  garden  plant  or  herb  had  no  place 
in  that  prolific  soil.  The  serried  ranks  of 
wheat  pressed  closely  round  the  straggling 
sheds  and  barns  and  hid  the  lower  windows. 
But  the  sheds  were  fitted  with  the  latest 
agricultural  machinery  ;  a  telegraphic  wire 
connected  the  nearest  town  with  an  office  in 
the  wing  of  one  of  the  buildings,  where  Dr. 
West  sat,  and  in  the  midst  of  the  wilder- 


90  MAR  UJA. 

ness  severely  checked  his  accounts  with  na- 
ture. 

Whether  this  strict  economy  of  domestic 
outlay  arose  from  an  ostentatious  contempt 
of  country  life  and  the  luxurious  habits  of 
the  former  landholders,  or  whether  it  was  a 
purely  business  principle  of  Dr.  West,  did 
not  appear.  Those  who  knew  him  best  de- 
clared that  it  was  both.  Certain  it  was  that 
unqualified  commercial  success  crowned  and 
dignified  his  method.  A  few  survivors  of 
the  old  native  families  came  to  see  his 
strange  machinery,  that  did  the  work  of  so 
many  idle  m£n  and  horses.  It  is  said  that 
he  offered  to  "run"  the  distant  estate  of 
Joaquin  Padilla  from  his  little  office  amidst 
the  grain  of  San  Antonio.'  Some  shook 
their  heads,  and  declared  that  he  only  sucked 
the  juices  of  the  land  for  a  few  brief  years 
to  throw  it  away  again ;  that  in  his  fierce 
haste  he  skimmed  the  fatness  of  ages  of 
gentle  cultivation  on  a  soil  that  had  been 
barely  tickled  with  native  oaken  plowshares. 


MARUJA.  91 

His  own  personal  tastes  and  habits  were 
as  severe  and  practical  as  his  business  :  the 
little  wing  he  inhabited  contained  only  his 
office,  his  living  room  or  library,  his  bed- 
room, and  a  bath-room.  This  last  incon- 
sistent luxury  was  due  to  a  certain  cat-like 
cleanliness  which  was  part  of  his  nature. 
His  iron-gray  hair  —  a  novelty  in  this  coun- 
try of  young  Americans  —  was  always  scru- 
pulously brushed,  and  his  linen  spotless. 
A  slightly  professional  and  somewhat  old- 
fashioned  respectability  in  his  black  clothes 
was  also  characteristic.  His  one  concession 
to  the  customs  of  his  neighbors  was  the  pos- 
session of  two  or  three  of  the  half-broken 
and  spirited  mustangs  of  the  country,  which 
he  rode  with  the  fearlessness,  if  not  the  per- 
fect security  and  ease,  of  a  native.  Whether 
the  subjection  of  this  lawless  and  powerful 
survival  of  a  wild  and  unfettered  nature 
around  him  was  part  of  his  plan,  or  whether 
it  was  only  a  lingering  trait  of  some' younger 
prowess,  no  one  knew ;  but  his  grim  and 


92  MARUJA. 

decorous  figure,  contrasting  with  the  pictur- 
esque and  flowing  freedom  of  the  horse  he 
bestrode,  was  a  frequent  spectacle  in  road 
and  field. 

It  was  the  second  day  after  his  visit  to 
La  Mision  Perdida.  He  was  sitting  by  his 
desk,  at  sunset,  in  the  faint  afterglow  of  the 
western  sky,  which  flooded  the  floor  through 
the  open  door.  He  was  writing,  but  pres- 
ently lifted  his  head,  with  an  impatient  air, 
and  called  out,  "  Harrison !  " 

The  shadow  of  Dr.  West's  foreman  ap- 
peared at  the  door. 

"  Who  's  that  you  're  talking  to  ?  " 

"  Tramp,  sir." 

"  Hire  him,  or  send  him  about  his  busi- 
ness. Don't  stand  gabbling  "there." 

"  That 's  just  it,  sir.  He  won't  hire  for  a 
week  or  a  day.  He  says  he  '11  do  an  odd 
job  for  his  supper  and  a  shakedown,  but  no 
more." 

"  Pack  him  off !  .  .  .  Stay.  .  .  .  What 's 
he  like?" 


MARUJA.  93 

"  Like  the  rest  of  'em,  only  a  little  lazier, 
I  reckon." 

"Umph!     Fetch  him  in." 

The  foreman  disappeared,  and  returned 
with  the  tramp  already  known  to  the  reader. 
He  was  a  little  dirtier  and  grimier  than  on 
the  morning  he  had  addressed  Maruja  at  La 
Mision  Perdida ;  but  he  wore  the  same  air 
of  sullen  indifference,  occasionally  broken 
by  furtive  observation.  His  laziness  —  or 
weariness  —  if  the  term  could  describe  the 
lassitude  of  perfect  physical  condition,  seemed 
to  have  increased;  and  he  leaned  against 
the  door  as  the  Doctor  regarded  him  with 
slow  contempt.  The  silence  continuing,  he 
deliberately  allowed  himself  to  slip  down 
into  a  sitting  position  in  the  doorway,  where 
he  remained. 

"  You  seem  to  have  been  born  tired,"  said 
the  Doctor,  grimly. 

"Yes." 

"What  have  you  got  to  say  for  your- 
self?" 


94  MARUJA. 

"  I  told  Tiim"  said  the  tramp,  nodding 
his  head  towards  the  foreman,  "what  I'd 
do  for  a  supper  and  a  bed.  I  don't  want 
anything  but  that." 

"  And  if  you  don't  get  what  you  want  on 
your  own  conditions,  what  '11  you  do  ?  "  asked 
the  Doctor,  dryly. 

"Go." 

"  Where  did  you  come  from  ?  " 

"  States." 

"  Where  are  you  going  ?  " 

"  On." 

"  Leave  him  to  me,"  said  Dr.  West  to  his 
foreman.  The  man  smiled,  and  withdrew. 

The  Doctor  bent  his  head  again  over  his 
accounts.  The  tramp,  sitting  in  the  door- 
way, reached  out  his  hand,*pulled  a  young 
wheat-stalk  that  had  sprung  up  near  the 
doorstep,  and  slowly  nibbled  it.  He  did  not 
raise  his  eyes  to  the  Doctor,  but  sat,  a  famil- 
iar culprit  awaiting  sentence,  without  fear, 
without  hope,  yet  not  without  a  certain  phil- 
osophical endurance  of  the  situation. 


MARUJA.  95 

"  Go  into  that  passage,"  said  the  Doctor, 
lifting  his  head  as  he  turned  a  page  of  his 
ledger,  "  and  on  the  shelf  you  '11  find  some 
clothing  stores  for  the  men.  Pick  out  some- 
thing to  fit  you." 

The  tramp  arose,  moved  towards  the  pas- 
sage, and  stopped.  "  It 's  for  the  job  only, 
you  understand  ?  "  he  said. 

"  For  the  job,"  answered  the  Doctor. 

The  tramp  returned  in  a  few  moments 
with  overalls  and  woolen  shirt  hanging  on 
his  arm  and  a  pair  of  boots  and  socks  in  his 
hand.  The  Doctor  had  put  asido  his  pen. 
"  Now  go  into  that  room  and  change.  Stop  ! 
First  wash  the  dust  from  your  feet  in  that 
bath-room." 

The  tramp  obeyed,  and  entered  the  room. 
The  Doctor  walked  to  the  door,  and  looked 
out  reflectively  on  the  paling  sky.  When  he 
turned  again  he  noticed  that  the  door  of  the 
bath-room  was  opened,  and  the  tramp,  who 
had  changed  his  clothes  by  the  fading  light, 
was  drying  his  feet.  The  Doctor  approached, 
and  stood  for  a  moment  watching  him. 


96  MARUJA. 

"What's  the  matter  with  your  foot?"1 
he  asked,  after  a  pause. 

"  Born  so." 

The  first  and  second  toe  were  joined  by  a 
thin  membrane. 

"  Both  alike?"  asked  the  Doctor. 

"  Yes,"  said  the  young  man,  exhibiting  the 
other  foot. 

"  What  did  you  say  your  name  was  ?  " 

"  I  did  n't  say  it.  It 's  Henry  Guest,  same 
as  my  father's." 

"  Where  were  you  born  ?  " 

"  Dentville,  Pike  County,  Missouri." 

"  What  was  your  mother's  name  ?  " 

"  Spalding,  I  reckon." 

"  Where  are  your  parents  now  ?  " 

"Mother  got  divorced  from  father,  and 
married  again  down  South,  somewhere. 
Father  left  home  twenty  years  ago.  He  's 
somewhere  in  California  —  if  he  ain't  dead." 

1  This  apparent  classical  plagiarism  is  actually  a  fact  of 
identification  on  record  in  the  California  Law  Reports.  It  is 
therefore  unnecessary  for  me  to  add  that  the  attendant  cir- 
cumstances and  characters  are  purely  fictitious.  —  B.  H. 


MARUJA.  97 

"  He  is  n't  dead." 

"  How  do  you  know  ?  " 

"Because  I  am  Henry  Guest,  of  Dent- 
ville,  and  "  —  he  stopped,  and,  shading  his 
eyes  with  his  hand  as  he  deliberately  exam- 
ined the  tramp,  added  coldly  —  "  your  father, 
I  reckon." 

There  was  a  slight  pause.  The  young 
man  put  down  the  boot  he  had  taken  up. 
"  Then  I  'm  to  stay  here  ?  " 

"  Certainly  not.  Here  my  name  is  only 
West,  and  I  have  no  son.  You  '11  go  on  to 
San  Jose*,  and  stay  there  until  I  look  into 
this  thing.  You  haven't  got  any  money, 
of  course  ?  "  he  asked,  with  a  scarcely  sup- 
pressed sneer. 

"  I  Ve  got  a  little,"  returned  the  young 
man. 

"  How  much?" 

The  tramp  put  his  hand  into  his  breast, 
and  drew  out  a  piece  of  folded  paper  con- 
taining a  single  gold  coin. 

"  Five  dollars.     I  've  kept  it  a  month ;   it 


98  MARUJA. 

does  n't  cost  much  to  live  as  I  do,"  he  added, 
dryly. 

"  There  's  fifty  more.  Go  to  some  hotel 
in  San  Jose*,  and  let  me  know  where  you 
are.  You  've  got  to  live,  and  you  don't 
want  to  work.  Well,  you  don't  seem  to  be 
a  fool ;  so  I  need  n't  tell  you  that  if  you  ex- 
pect anything  from  me,  you  must  leave  this 
matter  in  my  hands.  I  have  chosen  to  ac- 
knowledge you  to-day  of  my  own  free  will : 
I  can  as  easily  denounce  you  as  an  impostor 
to-morrow,  if  I  choose.  Have  you  told  your 
story  to  any  one  in  the  valley  ?  " 

"No." 

"  See  that  you  don't,  then.  Before  you 
go,  you  must  answer  me  a  few  more  ques- 
tions." 

He  drew  a  chair  to  his  table,  and  dipped 
a  pen  in  the  ink,  as  if  to  take  down  the  an- 
swers. The  young  man,  finding  the  only 
chair  thus  occupied,  moved  the  Doctor's 
books  aside,  and  sat  down  on  the  table  be- 
side him. 


MARUJA.  99 

The  questions  were  repetitions  of  those 
already  asked,  but  more  in  detail,  and  thor- 
oughly practical  in  their  nature.  The  an- 
swers were  given  straightforwardly  and  un- 
concernedly, as  if  the  subject  was  not  worth 
the  trouble  of  invention  or  evasion.  It  was 
difficult  to  say  whether  questioner  or  an- 
swerer took  least  pleasure  in  the  interroga- 
tion, which  might  have  referred  to  the  con- 
cerns of  a  third  party.  Both,  however, 
spoke  disrespectfully  of  their  common  fam- 
ily, with  almost  an  approach  to  sympathetic 
interest. 

"  You  might  as  well  be  going  now,"  said 
the  Doctor,  finally  rising.  "  You  can  stop 
at  the  fonda,  about  two  miles  further  on, 
and  get  your  supper  and  bed,  if  you  like." 

The  young  man  slipped  from  the  table, 
and  lounged  to  the  door.  The  Doctor  put 
his  hands  in  his  pockets  and  followed  him. 
The  young  man,  as  if  in  unconscious  imita- 
tion, had  put  his  hands  in  his  pockets  also, 
and  looked  at  him. 


100  MARUJA. 

"  I  '11  hear  from  you,  then,  when  you  are 
in  San  Jose  ?  "  said  Dr.  West,  looking  past 
him  into  the  grain,  with  a  slight  approach 
to  constraint  in  his  indifference. 

"Yes  —  if  that 's  agreed  upon,"  returned 
the  young  man,  pausing  on  the  threshold. 
A  faint  sense  of  some  purely  conventional 
responsibility  in  their  position  affected  them 
both.  They  would  have  shaken  hands  if 
either  had  offered  the  initiative.  A  sullen 
consciousness  of  gratuitous  rectitude  in  the 
selfish  mind  of  the  father  ;  an  equally  sullen 
conviction  of  twenty  years  of  wrong  in  the 
son,  withheld  them  both.  Unpleasantly  ob- 
servant of  each  other's  awkwardness,  they 
parted  with  a  feeling  of  relief. 

Dr.  West  closed  the  door,  lit  his  lamp, 
and,  going  to  his  desk,  folded  the  paper  con- 
taining the  memoranda  he  had  just  written 
and  placed  it  in  his  pocket.  Then  he  sum- 
moned his  foreman.  The  man  entered,  and 
glanced  around  the  room  as  if  expecting  to 
see  the  Doctor's  guest  still  there. 


MARUJA.  101 

"Tell  one  of  the  men  to  bring  round 
« Buckeye.' " 

The  foreman  hesitated.  "  Going  to  ride 
to-night,  sir  ?  " 

"  Certainly ;  I  may  go  as  far  as  Salton- 
stall's.  If  I  do,  you  needn't  expect  me 
back  till  morning." 

"  Buckeye 's  mighty  fresh  to-night,  boss. 
Regularly  bucked  his  saddle  clean  off  an 
hour  ago,  and  there  ain't  a  man  dare  exer- 
cise him." 

"  I  '11  bet  he  don't  buck  his  saddle  off 
with  me  on  it,"  said  the  Doctor,  grimly. 
"Bring  him  along." 

The  man  turned  to  go.  "  You  found  the 
tramp  pow'ful  lazy,  did  n't  ye  ?  " 

"  I  found  a  heap  more  in  him  than  in 
some  that  call  themselves  smart,"  said  Dr. 
West,  unconsciously  setting  up  an  irritable 
defense  of  the  absent  one.  "  Hurry  up  that 
horse ! " 

The  foreman  vanished.  The  Doctor  put 
on  a  pair  of  leather  leggings,  large  silver 


102  MARUJA. 

spurs,  and  a  broad  soft-brimmed  hat,  but 
made  no  other  change  in  his  usual  half-pro- 
fessional conventional  garb.  He  then  went 
to  the  window  and  glanced  in  the  direction 
of  the  highway.  Now  that  his  son  was  gone, 
he  felt  a  faint  regret  that  he  had  not  pro- 
longed the  interview.  Certain  peculiarities 
in  his  manner,  certain  suggestions  of  ex- 
pression in  his  face,  speech,  and  gesture, 
came  back  to  him  now  with  unsatisfied  cu- 
riosity. "  No  matter,"  he  said  to  himself ; 
"  he  '11  turn  up  soon  again  —  as  soon  as  I 
•want  him,  if  not  sooner.  He  thinks  he  's 
got  a  mighty  soft  thing  here,  and  he  is  n't 
going  to  let  it  go.  And  there 's  that  same 

d d  sullen  dirty  pride  of  his  mother,  for 

all  he  does  n't  cotton  to  her.  Wonder  I 
did  n't  recognize  it  at  first.  And  hoarding 
up  that  five  dollars  !  That 's  Jane's  brat, 
all  over !  And,  of  course,"  he  added,  bit- 
terly, "  nothing  of  me  in  him.  No ;  nothing ! 
Well,  well,  what's  the  difference?"  He 
turned  towards  the  door,  with  a  certain  sul- 


MARUJA.  103 

len  defiance  in  his  face  so  like  the  man  he 
believed  he  did  not  resemble,  that  his  fore- 
man, coming  upon  him  suddenly,  might  have 
been  startled  at  the  likeness.  Fortunately, 
however,  Harrison  was  too  much  engrossed 
with  the  antics  of  the  irrepressible  Buckeye, 
which  the  ostler  had  just  brought  to  the 
door,  to  notice  anything  else.  The  arrival 
of  the  horse  changed  the  Doctor's  expres- 
sion to  one  of  more  practical  and  signifi- 
cant resistance.  With  the  assistance  of  two 
men  at  the  head  of  the  restive  brute,  he  man- 
aged to  vault  into  the  saddle.  A  few  wild 
plunges  only  seemed  to  settle  him  the  firmer 
in  his  seat  —  each  plunge  leaving  its  record 
in  a  thin  red  line  on  the  animal's  flanks, 
made  by  the  cruel  spurs  of  its  rider.  Any 
lingering  desire  of  following  his  son's  foot- 
steps was  quickly  dissipated  by  Buckeye, 
who  promptly  bolted  in  the  opposite  direc- 
tion, and,  before  Dr.  West  could  gain  active 
control  over  him,  they  were  half  a  mile  on 
their  way  to  La  Mision  Perdida, 


104  MARUJA. 

Dr.  West  did  not  regret  it.  Twenty 
years  ago  he  had  voluntarily  abandoned  a 
legal  union  of  mutual  unfaithfulness  and 
misconduct,  and  allowed  his  wife  to  get  the 
divorce  he  might  have  obtained  for  equal 
cause.  He  had  abandoned  to  her  the  issue 
of  that  union  —  an  infant  son.  Whatever 
he  chose  to  do  now  was  purely  gratuitous ; 
the  only  hold  which  this  young  stranger  had 
on  his  respect  was  that  he  also  recognized 
that  fact  with  a  cold  indifference  equal  to 
his  own.  At  present  the  half -savage  brute 
he  bestrode  occupied  all  his  attention.  Yet 
he  could  not  help  feeling  his  advancing 
years  tell  upon  him  more  heavily  that  even- 
ing ;  fearless  as  he  was,  his  strength  was  no 
longer  equal  when  measured  with  the  untir- 
ing youthful  malevolence  of  his  unbroken 
mustang.  For  a  moment  he  dwelt  regretfully 
on  the  lazy  half -developed  sinews  of  his  son  ; 
for  a  briefer  instant  there  flashed  across  him 
the  thought  that  those  sinews  aught  to  re- 
place his  own ;  ought  to  be  his  to  lean  upon 


MARUJA.  105 

—  that  thus,  and  thus  only,  could  he  achieve 
the  old  miracle  of  restoring  his  lost  youth 
by  perpetuating  his  own  power  in  his  own 
blood ;  and  he,  whose  profound  belief  in  per- 
sonality had  rejected  all  hereditary  prin- 
ciple, felt  this  with  a  sudden  exquisite  pain. 
But  his  horse,  perhaps  recognizing  a  relax- 
ing grip,  took  that  opportunity  to  "  buck." 
Curving  his  back  like  a  cat,  and  throwing 
himself  into  the  air  with  an  unexpected 
bound,  he  came  down  with  four  stiff,  inflexi- 
ble legs,  and  a  shock  that  might  have  burst 
the  saddle-girths,  had  not  the  wily  old  man 
as  quickly  brought  the  long  rowels  of  his 
spurs  together  and  fairly  locked  his  heels 
under  Buckeye's  collapsing  barrel.  It  was 
the  mustang's  last  rebellious  struggle.  The 
discomfited  brute  gave  in,  and  darted  meekly 
and  apologetically  forward,  and,  as  it  were, 
left  all  its  rider's  doubts  and  fears  far  be- 
hind in  the  vanishing  distance. 


CHAPTER   V. 

MEANWHILE,  the  subject  of  Dr.  West's 
meditations  was  slowly  making  his  way 
along  the  high-road  towards  the  fonda.  He 
walked  more  erect  and  with  less  of  a  shuffle 
in  his  gait ;  but  whether  this  was  owing  to 
his  having  cast  the  old  skin  of  garments 
adapted  to  his  slouch,  and  because  he  was 
more  securely  shod,  or  whether  it  was  from 
the  sudden  straightening  of  some  warped 
moral  quality,  it  would  have  been  difficult 
to  say.  The  expression  of  his  face  certainly 
gave  no  evidence  of  actual  and  prospective 
good  fortune  ;  if  anything,  tne  lines  of  dis- 
content around  his  brow  and  mouth  were 
more  strongly  drawn.  Apparently,  his  in- 
terview with  his  father  had  only  the  effect 
of  reviving  and  stirring  into  greater  activity 
a  certain  dogged  sentiment  that,  through 


MARUJA.  107 

long  years,  had  become  languidly  mechan- 
ical. He  was  no  longer  a  beaten  animal, 
but  one  roused  by  a  chance  success  into  a 
dangerous  knowledge  of  his  power.  In  his 
honest  workman's  dress,  he  was  infinitely 
more  to  be  feared  than  in  his  rags ;  in  the 
lifting  of  his  downcast  eye,  there  was  the 
revelation  of  a  baleful  intelligence.  In  his 
changed  condition,  civilization  only  seemed 
to  have  armed  him  against  itself. 

The  f  onda,  a  long  low  building,  with  a  red- 
tiled  roof  extending  over  a  porch  or  white- 
washed veranda,  in  which  drunken  vaqueros 
had  been  known  to  occasionally  disport  their 
mustangs,  did  not  offer  a  very  reputable 
appearance  to  the  eye  of  young  Guest  as 
he  approached  it  in  the  gathering  shadows. 
One  or  two  half-broken  horses  were  securely 
fastened  to  the  stout  cross-beams  of  some 
heavy  posts  driven  in  the  roadway  before 
it,  and  a  primitive  trough  of  roughly  exca- 
vated stone  stood  near  it.  Through  a  broken 
gate  at  the  side  there  was  a  glimpse  of  a 


108  MARUJA. 

grass-grown  and  deserted  court-yard  piled 
with  the  disused  packing-cases  and  barrels 
of  the  tienda,  or  general  country  shop,  which 
huddled  under  the  same  roof  at  the  other 
end  of  the  building.  The  opened  door  of 
the  fonda  showed  a  low-studded  room  fitted 
up  with  a  rude  imitation  of  an  American 
bar  on  one  side,  and  containing  a  few  small 
tables,  at  which  half  a  dozen  men  were 
smoking,  drinking,  and  playing  cards.  The 
faded  pictorial  poster  of  the  last  bull-fight 
at  Monterey,  and  an  American  "Sheriff's 
notice "  were  hung  on  the  wall  and  in  the 
door-way.  A  thick  yellow  atmosphere  of 
cigarette  smoke,  through  which  the  inmates 
appeared  like  brown  shadows,  pervaded  the 
room. 

The  young  man  hesitated  before  this  pes- 
tilential interior,  and  took  a  seat  on  a  bench 
on  the  veranda.  After  a  moment's  interval, 
the  yellow  landlord  came  to  the  door  with  a 
look  of  inquiry,  which  Guest  answered  by  a 
demand  for  lodging  and  supper.  '  When  the 


MARUJA.  109 

landlord  had  vanished  again  in  the  cigaretto 
fog,  the  several  other  guests,  one  after  the 
other,  appeared  at  the  doorway,  with  their 
cigarettes  in  their  mouths  and  their  cards 
still  in  their  hands,  and  gazed  upon  him. 

There  may  have  been  some  excuse  for 
their  curiosity.  As  before  hinted,  Guest's 
appearance  in  his  overalls  and  woolen  shirt 
was  somewhat  incongruous,  and,  for  some 
inexplicable  reason,  the  same  face  and  figure 
which  did  not  look  inconsistent  in  rags  and 
extreme  poverty  now  at  once  suggested  a 
higher  social  rank  both  of  intellect  and  re- 
finement than  his  workman's  dress  indicated. 
This,  added  to  his  surliness  of  manner  and 
expression,  strengthened  a  growing  suspi- 
cion in  the  mind  of  the  party  that  he  was  a 
fugitive  from  justice  —  a  forger,  a  derelict 
banker,  or  possibly  a  murderer.  It  is  only 
fair  to  say  that  the  moral  sense  of  the  spec- 
tators was  not  shocked  at  the  suspicion,  and 
that  a  more  active  sympathy  was  only  with- 
held by  his  reticence.  An  unfortunate  inci- 


110  MARUJA. 

dent  seemed  to  complete  the  evidence  against 
him.  In  impatiently  responding  to  the 
landlord's  curt  demand  for  prepayment  of 
his  supper,  he  allowed  three  or  four  pieces 
of  gold  to  escape  from  his  pocket  on  the  ve- 
randa. In  the  quick  glances  of  the  party, 
as  he  stooped  to  pick  them  up,  he  read  the 
danger  of  his  carelessness. 

His  sullen  self-possession  did  not  seem  to 
be  shaken.  Calling  to  the  keeper  of  the 
tienda,  who  had  appeared  at  his  door  in 
time  to  witness  the  Danae-like  shower,  he 
bade  him  approach,  in  English. 

"  What  sort  of  knives  have  you  got  ?  " 

"  Knives,  Senor  ?  " 

"  Yes ;  bowie-knives  or  dirks.  Knives 
like  that,"  he  said,  making  an  imaginary 
downward  stroke  at  the  table  before  him. 

The  shopkeeper  entered  the  tienda,  and 
presently  reappeared  with  three  or  four 
dirks  in  red  leather  sheaths.  Guest  selected 
the  heaviest,  and  tried  its  point  on  the 
table. 


MARUJA.  Ill 

"  How  much  ?  " 

"  Tres  pesos." 

The  young  man  threw  him  one  of  his  gold 
pieces,  and  slipped  the  knife  and  its  sheath 
in  his  boot.  When  he  had  received  his 
change  from  the  shopkeeper,  he  folded  his 
arms  and  leaned  back  against  the  wall  in 
quiet  indifference. 

The  simple  act  seemed  to  check  aggres- 
sive, but  not  insinuating,  interference.  In 
a  few  moments  one  of  the  men  appeared  at 
the  doorway. 

"It  is  fine  weather  for  the  road,  little 
comrade !  " 

Guest  did  not  reply. 

"Ah!  the  night,  it  ess  splendid,"  he  re- 
peated, in  broken  English,  rubbing  his 
hands,  as  if  washing  in  the  air. 

Still  no  reply. 

"  You  shall  come  from  Sank  Hosay  ?  " 

"I  sha'ant." 

The  stranger  muttered  something  in  Span- 
ish, but  the  landlord,  who  reappeared  to 


112  MARUJA. 

place  Guest's  supper  on  a  table  on  the  ve- 
randa, here  felt  the  obligation  of  interfering 
to  protect  a  customer  apparently  so  aggres- 
sive and  so  opulent.  He  pushed  the  inquisi- 
tor aside,  with  a  few  hasty  words,  and,  after 
Guest  had  finished  his  meal,  offered  to  show 
him  his  room.  It  was  a  dark  vaulted  closet 
on  the  ground-floor,  gaining  light  from  the 
stable-yard  through  a  barred  iron  grating. 
At  the  first  glimpse  it  looked  like  a  prison 
cell ;  looking  more  deliberately  at  the  black 
tresseled  bed,  and  the  votive  images  hang- 
ing on  the  wall,  it  might  have  been  a  tomb. 

"It  is  the  best,"  said  the  landlord.  " The 
Padre  Vincento  will  have  none  other  on  his 
journey." 

"  I  suppose  God  protects  him,"  said  Guest ; 
"  that  door  don't."  He  pointed  to  the 
worm-eaten  door,  without  bolt  or  fastening. 

"Ah,  what  matter!  Are  we  not  all 
friends  ?  " 

"  Certainly,"  responded  Guest,  with  his 
surliest  manner,  as  he  returned  to  the  ve- 


MARUJA.  113 

randa.  Nevertheless,  he  resolved  not  to  oc- 
cupy the  cell  of  the  reverend  Padre ;  not 
from  any  personal  fear  of  his  disreputable 
neighbors,  though  he  was  fully  alive  to  their 
peculiarities,  but  from  the  nomadic  instinct 
which  was  still  strong  in  his  blood.  He  felt 
he  could  not  yet  bear  the  confinement  of  a 
close  room  or  the  propinquity  of  his  fellow- 
man.  He  would  rest  on  the  veranda  until 
the  moon  was  fairly  up,  and  then  he  would 
again  take  to  the  road. 

He  was  half  reclining  on  the  bench,  with 
the  slowly  closing  and  opening  lids  of  some 
tired  but  watchful  animal,  when  the  sound 
of  wheels,  voices,  and  clatter  of  hoofs  on  the 
highway  arrested  his  attention,  and  he  sat 
upright.  The  moon  was  slowly  lifting  itself 
over  the  limitless  stretch  of  grain-fields  be- 
fore him  on  the  other  side  of  the  road,  and 
dazzling  him  with  its  level  lustre.  He  could 
barely  discern  a  cavalcade  of  dark  figures 
and  a  large  vehicle  rapidly  approaching,  be- 
fore it  drew  up  tumultuously  in  front  of  the 


114  MARUJA. 

fonda.  It  was  a  pleasure  party  of  ladies 
and  gentlemen  on  horseback  and  in  a  four- 
horsed  char-a-bancs  returning  to  La  Mision 
Perdida.  Buchanan,  Raymond,  and  Gar- 
nier  were  there ;  Amita  and  Dorotea  in  the 
body  of  the  char-a-bancs,  and  Maruja  seated 
on  the  box.  Much  to  his  own  astonishment 
and  that  of  some  others  of  the  party,  Cap- 
tain Carroll  was  among  the  riders.  Only 
Maruja  and  her  mother  knew  that  he  was 
recalled  to  refute  a  repetition  of  the  gossip 
already  circulated  regarding  his  sudden  with- 
drawal ;  only  Maruja  alone  knew  the  subtle 
words  which  made  that  call  so  potent  yet  so 
hopeless. 

Maruja's  quick  eyes,  observant  of  every- 
thing, even  under  the  double  fire  of  Captain 
Carroll  and  Gamier,  instantly  caught  those 
of  the  erect  figure  on  the  bench  in  the  ve- 
randa. Surely  that  was  the  face  of  the  tramp 
she  had  spoken  to !  and  yet  there  was  a 
change,  not  only  in  the  dress  but  in  the  gen- 
eral resemblance.  After  the  first  glance, 


MARUJA.  115 

Guest  withdrew  his  eyes  and  ga2ed  at  the 
other  figures  in  the  char-a-bancs  without 
moving  a  muscle. 

Maruja's  whims  and  caprices  were  many 
and  original ;  and  when,  after  a  sudden  little 
cry  and  a  declaration  that  she  could  stand 
her  cramped  position  no  longer,  she  leaped 
from  the  box  into  the  road,  no  one  was  sur- 
prised. Gamier  and  Captain  Carroll  quick- 
ly followed. 

"  I  should  like  to  look  into  the  fonda 
while  the  horses  are  being  watered,"  she 
said,  laughingly,  "  just  to  see  what  it  is  that 
attracts  Pereo  there  so  often."  Before  any 
one  could  restrain  this  new  caprice,  she  was 
already  upon  the  veranda. 

To  reach  the  open  door,  she  had  to  pass 
so  near  Guest  that  her  soft  white  flounces 
brushed  his  knees,  and  the  flowers  in  her 
girdle  left  their  perfume  in  his  face.  But 
he  neither  moved  nor  raised  his  eyes.  When 
she  had  passed,  he  rose  quietly  and  stepped 
into  the  road. 


116  MARUJA. 

On  her  nearer  survey,  Maruja  was  con- 
vinced it  was  the  same  man.  She  remained 
for  an  instant,  with  a  little  hand  on  the  door- 
post. "  What  a  horrid  place,  and  what 
dreadful  people ! "  she  said  in  audible  Eng- 
lish as  she  glanced  quickly  after  Guest. 
"  Really,  Pereo  ought  to  be  warned  against 
keeping  such  company.  Come,  let  us  go." 

She  contrived  to  pass  Guest  again  in  re- 
gaining the  carriage  ;  but  in  the  few  mo- 
ments' further  delay  he  walked  on  down  the 
road  before  them,  and,  by  the  time  they  were 
ready  to  start,  he  was  slowly  sauntering  some 
hundred  yards  ahead.  They  passed  him  at 
a  rapid  trot,  but  the  next  moment  the  char- 
a-bancs  was  suddenly  pulled  up. 

"  My  fan !  "  cried  Maruja.  "  Blessed  San- 
ta Maria !  —  my  fan  !  " 

A  small  black  object,  seen  distinctly  in 
the  moonlight,  was  lying  on  the  road,  di- 
rectly in  the  track  of  the  sauntering  stran- 
ger. Garnier  attempted  to  alight ;  Carroll 
reined  in  his  horse. 


MARUJA.  117 

"Stop,  all  of  you!  "  said  Maruja;  "that 
man  will  bring  it  to  me." 

It  seemed  as  if  he  would.  He  stopped 
and  picked  it  up,  and  approached  the  car- 
riage. Maruja  stood  up  in  her  seat,  with 
her  veil  thrown  back,  her  graceful  hand  ex- 
tended, her  eyes  and  mouth  tremulous  with 
an  irresistible  smile.  The  stranger  came 
nearer,  singled  out  Captain  Carroll,  tossed 
the  fan  to  him  with  a  slight  nod,  and  passed 
on  the  other  side. 

"  One  moment,"  said  Maruja,  almost 
harshly,  to  the  driver.  "  One  moment," 
she  continued,  drawing  her  purse  from  her 
pocket  brusquely.  "  Let  me  reward  this 
civil  gentleman  of  the  road !  Here,  sir ;  " 
but,  before  she  could  continue,  Carroll 
wheeled  to  her  side,  and  interposed.  "  Pray 
collect  yourself,  Miss  Saltonstall,"  he  said, 
hurriedly  ;  "  you  cannot  tell  who  this  man 
may  be.  He  does  not  seem  to  be  one  who 
would  insult  you,  or  whom  you  would  insult 
gratuitously." 


118  MARUJA. 

"  Give  me  the  fan,  Captain  Carroll," 
she  said,  with  a  soft  and  caressing  smile. 
"  Thank  you."  She  took  it,  and,  breaking 
it  through  the  middle  between  her  gloved 
hands,  tossed  it  into  the  highway.  "You 
are  right  —  it  smells  of  the  f onda  —  and 
the  road.  Thank  you,  again.  You  are  so 
thoughtful  for  me,  Captain  Carroll,"  she 
murmured,  raising  her  eyes  gently  to  his, 
and  then  suddenly  withdrawing  them  with  a 
half  sigh.  "  But  I  am  keeping  you  all.  Go 
on." 

The  carriage  rolled  away  and  Guest  re- 
turned from  the  hedge  to  the  middle  of  the 
road.  San  Jose  lay  in  the  opposite  direction 
from  the  disappearing  calvacade ;  but,  on 
leaving  the  f  onda,  he  had  determined  to  lead 
his  inquisitors  astray  by  doubling  and  mak- 
ing a  circuit  of  the  hostelry  through  the 
fields  hidden  in  the  tall  grain.  This  he  did, 
securely  passing  them  within  sound  of  their 
voices,  and  was  soon  well  on  his  way  again. 
He  avoided  the  highway,  and,  striking  a 


MARUJA.  119 

trail  through  the  meadows,  diverged  to  the 
right,  where  the  low  towers  and  brown  walls 
of  a  ruined  mission  church  rose  above  the 
plain.  This  would  enable  him  to  escape 
any  direct  pursuit  on  the  high  road,  besides, 
from  its  slight  elevation,  giving  him  a  moro 
extended  view  of  the  plain.  As  he  neared 
it,  he  was  surprised  to  see  that,  although  it 
was  partly  dismantled,  and  the  roof  had 
fallen  in  the  central  aisle,  a  part  of  it  was 
still  used  as  a  chapel,  and  a  light  was  burn- 
ing behind  a  narrow  opening,  partly  window 
and  partly  shrine.  He  was  almost  upon  it, 
when  the  figure  of  a  man  who  had  been 
kneeling  beneath,  with  his  back  towards 
him,  rose,  crossed  himself  devoutly,  and 
stood  upright.  Before  he  could  turn,  Guest 
disappeared  round  the  angle  of  the  wall, 
and  the  tall  erect  figure  of  the  solitary  wor- 
shiper passed  on  without  heeding  him. 

But  if  Guest  had  been  successful  in  evad- 
ing the  observation  of  the  man  he  had  come 
so  suddenly  upon,  he  was  utterly  uncon- 


120  MARUJA. 

scious  of  another  figure  that  had  been  track- 
ing him  for  the  last  ten  minutes  through 
the  tall  grain,  and  had  even  succeeded  in 
gaining  the  shadow  of  the  wall  behind  him  ; 
and  it  was  this  figure,  and  not  his  own,  that 
eventually  attracted  the  attention  of  the 
tall  stranger.  The  pursuing  figure  was  rap- 
idly approaching  the  unconscious  Guest ;  in 
another  moment  it  would  have  been  upon 
him,  when  it  was  suddenly  seized  from  be- 
hind by  the  tall  devotee.  There  was  a  mo- 
mentary struggle,  and  then  it  freed  itself, 
with  the  exclamation,  "  Pereo !  " 

"  Yes  —  Pereo  !  "  said  the  old  man,  pant- 
ing from  his  exertions.  "  And  thou  art 
Miguel.  So  thou  wouldst  murder  a  man 
for  a  few  pesos !  "  he  said,  pointing  to  the 
knife  which  the  desperado  had  hurriedly  hid 
in  his  jacket,  "  and  callest  thyself  a  Califor- 
nian!  " 

"  'T  is  only  an  Americano  —  a  runaway, 
with  some  ill-gotten  gold,"  said  Miguel,  sul- 
lenly, yet  with  unmistakable  fear  of  the  old 


MARUJA.  121 

man.  "  Besides,  it  was  only  to  frighten  him, 
the  braggart.  But  since  thou  fearest  to 
touch  a  hair  of  those  interlopers  "  — 

"  Fearest !  "  said  Pereo,  fiercely,  clutching 
him  by  the  throat,  and  forcing  him  against 
the  wall.  "  Fearest !  sayest  thou.  I,  Pereo, 
fear?  Dost  thou  think  I  would  soil  these 
hands,  that  might  strike  a  higher  quarry, 
with  blood  of  thy  game  ?  " 

"  Forgive  me,  padrono,"  gasped  Miguel, 
now  thoroughly  alarmed  at  the  old  man's 
awakened  passion  ;  "  pardon ;  I  meant  that, 
since  thou  knowest  him  "  — 

"  I  know  him  ?  "  repeated  Pereo,  scorn- 
fully, contemptuously  throwing  Miguel  aside, 
who  at  once  took  that  opportunity  to  in- 
crease his  distance  from  the  old  man's  arm. 
"  I  know  him  ?  Thou  shalt  see.  Come 
hither,  child,"  he  called,  beckoning  to  Guest. 
"Come  hither,  thou  hast  nothing  to  fear 
now." 

Guest,  who  had  been  attracted  by  the 
sound  of  altercation  behind  him,  but  who 


122  MARUJA. 

was  utterly  unconscious  of  its  origin  or  his 
own  relation  to  it,  came  forward  impatiently. 
As  he  did  so,  Miguel  took  to  his  heels.  The 
act  did  not  tend  to  mollify  Guest's  surly 
suspicions,  and,  pausing  a  few  feet  from  the 
old  man,  he  roughly  demanded  his  business 
with  him. 

Pereo  raised  his  head,  with  the  dignity  of 
years  and  habits  of  command.  The  face  of 
the  young  man  confronting  him  was  clearly 
illuminated  by  the  moonlight.  Pereo's  eyes 
suddenly  dilated,  his  mouth  stiffened,  he 
staggered  back  against  the  wall. 

"  Who  are  you  ?  "  he  gasped,  in  uncertain 
English. 

Believing  himself  the  subject  of  some 
drunkard's  pastime,  Guest  replied,  savagely, 
"  One  who  has  enough  of  this  d d  non- 
sense, and  will  stand  no  more  of  it  from  any 
one,  young  or  old,"  and  turned  abruptly  on 
his  heel. 

"  Stay,  one  moment,  Senor,  for  the  love  of 
God!" 


MARUJA.  123 

Some  keen  accent  of  agony  in  the  old 
man's  voice  touched  even  Guest's  selfish 
nature.  He  halted. 

"  You  are  —  a  stranger  here  ?  "  —  faltered 
Pereo.  "  Yes  ?  " 

"lam." 

"  You  do  not  live  here  ?  —  you  have  no 
friends  ?  " 

"  I  told  you  I  am  a  stranger.  I  never  was 
here  before  in  my  life,"  said  Guest,  impa- 
tiently. 

"  True ;  I  am  a  fool,"  said  the  old  man, 
hurriedly,  to  himself.  "  I  am  mad  —  mad ! 
It  is  not  his  voice.  No !  It  is  not  his  look, 
now  that  his  face  changes.  I  am  crazy." 
He  stopped,  and  passed  his  trembling  hands 
across  his  eyes.  "  Pardon,  Senor,"  he  con- 
tinued, recalling  himself  with  a  humility 
that  was  almost  ironical  in  its  extravagance. 
"  Pardon,  pardon !  Yet,  perhaps  it  is  not 
too  much  to  have  wanted  to  know  who  was 
the  man  one  has  saved." 

"  Saved  !  "  repeated  Guest,  with  incredu- 
lous contempt. 


124  MARUJA. 

"  Ay !  "  said  Pereo,  haughtily,  drawing 
his  figure  erect ;  "  ay,  saved  !  Senor."  He 
stopped  and  shrugged  his  shoulders.  *'  But 
let  it  pass  —  I  say  —  let  it  pass.  Take  an 
old  man's  advice,  friend:  show  not  your  gold 
hereafter  to  strangers  lightly,  no  matter  how 
lightly  you  have  come  by  it.  Good-night !  " 

Guest  for  a  moment  hesitated  whether  to 
resent  the  old  man's  speech,  or  to  let  it  pass 
as  the  incoherent  fancy  of  a  brain  maddened 
by  drink.  Then  he  ended  the  discussion  by 
turning  his  back  abruptly  and  continuing 
his  way  to  the  high-road. 

"  So  ! "  said  Pereo,  looking  after  him  with 
abstracted  eyes,  "  so !  it  was  only  a  fancy. 
And  yet  —  even  now,  as  he  turned  away,  I 
saw  the  same  cold  insolence  in  his  eye.  Ca- 
ramba !  Am  I  mad  —  ma'd  —  that  I  must 
keep  forever  before  my  eyes,  night  and  day, 
the  image  of  that  dog  in  every  outcast,  every 
ruffian,  every  wayside  bully  that  I  meet? 
No,  no,  good  Pereo !  Softly !  this  is  mere 
madness,  good  Pereo,"  he  murmured  to  him- 


MARUJA.  125 

self ;  "  thou  wilt  have  none  of  it ;  none,  good 
Pereo.  Come,  come  !  "  He  let  his  head  fall 
slowly  forward  on  his  breast,  and  in  that  ac- 
tion, seeming  to  take  up  again  the  burden  of 
a  score  more  years  upon  his  shoulders,  he 
moved  slowly  away. 

When  he  entered  the  fonda  half  an  hour 
later,  the  awe  in  which  he  was  held  by  the 
half  superstitious  ruffians  appeared  to  have 
increased.  Whatever  story  the  fugitive  Mi- 
guel had  told  his  companions  regarding 
Pereo's  protection  of  the  young  stranger,  it 
was  certain  that  it  had  its  full  effect.  Ob- 
sequious to  the  last  degree,  the  landlord  was 
so  profoundly  touched,  when  Pereo,  not  dis- 
pleased with  this  evidence  of  his  power  over 
his  countrymen,  condescendingly  offered  to 
click  glasses  with  him,  that  he  endeavored  to 
placate  him  still  further. 

"It  is  a  pity  your  worship  was  not  here 
earlier,"  he  began,  with  a  significant  glance 
at  the  others,  "  to  have  seen  a  gallant  young 
stranger  tha't  was  here.  A  spice  of  wicked- 


126  MARUJA. 

ness  about  him,  truly  —  a  kind  of  Don  Caesar 
—  but  bearing  himself  like  a  very  caballero 
always.  It  would  have  pleased  your  wor- 
ship, who  likes  not  those  canting  Puritans 
such  as  our  neighbor  yonder." 

"Ah,"  said  Pereo,  reflectively,  warming 
under  the  potent  fires  of  flattery  and  aguar- 
diente, "  possibly  I  have  seen  him.  He  was 
like"  — 

"  Like  none  of  the  dogs  thou  hast  seen 
about  San  Antonio,"  interrupted  the  land- 
lord. "  Scarcely  did  he  seem  Americano, 
though  he  spoke  no  Spanish." 

The  old  man  chuckled  to  himself  viciously. 
"  And  thou,  thou  old  fool,  Pereo,  must  needs 
see  a  likeness  to  thine  enemy  in  this  poor 
runaway  child  —  this  fugitive  Don  Juan! 
He !  he !  "  Nevertheless,'  he  still  felt  a 
vague  terror  of  the  condition  of  mind  which 
had  produced  this  fancy,  and  drank  so 
deeply  to  dispel  his  nervousness  that  it  was 
with  difficulty  he  could  mount  his  horse 
again.  The  exaltation  of  liquor,  however, 


MARUJA.  127 

appeared  only  to  intensify  his  characteris- 
tics :  his  face  became  more  lugubrious  and 
melancholy;  his  manner  more  ceremonious 
and  dignified;  and,  erect  and  stiff  in  his 
saddle  from  the  waist  upwards,  but  leaning 
from  side  to  side  with  the  motion  of  his 
horse,  like  the  tall  mast  of  some  laboring 
sloop,  he  "  loped  "  away  towards  the  House 
of  the  Lost  Mission.  Once  or  twice  he 
broke  into  sentimental  song.  Strangely 
enough,  his  ditty  was  a  popular  Spanish  re- 
frain of  some  matador's  aristocratic  inamo- 
rata :  — 

Do  you  see  my  black  eyes  ? 
I  am  Manuel's  Duchess,  — 

sang  Pereo,  with  infinite  gravity.  His  horse's 
hoofs  seemed  to  keep  time  with  the  refrain, 
and  he  occasionally  waved  in  the  air  the 
long  leather  thong  of  his  bridle-rein. 

It  was  quite  late  when  he  reached  La  Mi- 
sion  Perdida.  Turning  into  the  little  lane 
that  led  to  the  stable-yard,  he  dismounted  at 
a  gate  in  the  hedge  which  led  to  the  summer- 


128  MARUJA. 

house  of  the  old  Mision  garden,  and,  throw- 
ing his  reins  on  his  mustang's  neck,  let  the 
animal  precede  him  to  the  stables.  The 
moon  shone  full  on  the  inclosure  as  he 
emerged  from  the  labyrinth.  With  uncov- 
ered head  he  approached  the  Indian  mound, 
and  sank  on  his  knees  before  it. 

The  next  moment  he  rose,  with  an  excla- 
mation of  terror,  and  his  hat  dropped  from 
his  trembling  hand.  Directly  before  him, 
a  small,  gray,  wolfish  -  looking  animal  had 
stopped  half-way  down  the  mound  on  encoun- 
tering his  motionless  figure.  Frightened  by 
his  outcry,  and  unable  to  retreat,  the  shad- 
owy depredator  had  fallen  back  on  his  slink- 
ing haunches  with  a  snarl,  and  bared  teeth 
that  glittered  in  the  moonlight. 

In  an  instant  the  expression  of  terror  on 
the  old  man's  ashen  face  turned  into  a  fixed 
look  of  insane  exaltation.  His  white  lips 
moved ;  he  advanced  a  step  further,  and  held 
out  both  hands  towards  the  crouching  ani- 
mal. 


MARUJA.  129 

"  So !  It  is  thou  —  at  last !  And  comest 
thou  here  thy  tardy  Pereo  to  chide  ?  Com- 
est thou,  too,  to  tell  the  poor  old  man  his 
heart  is  cold,  his  liuibs  are  feeble,  his  brain 
weak  and  dizzy  ?  that  he  is  no  longer  fit  to 
do  thy  master's  work  ?  Ay,  gnash  thy  teeth 
at  him  !  Curse  him  I  —  curse  him  in  thy 
throat !  But  listen !  —  listen,  good  friend  — 
I  will  tell  thee  a  secret  —  ay,  good  gray  friar, 
a  secret  —  such  a  secret !  A  plan,  all  mine 

—  fresh  from  this  old  gray  head  ;  ha !  ha ! 

—  all  mine  !     To  be  wrought  by  these  poor 
old  arms  ;  ha !  ha !     All  mine  !     Listen  !  " 

He  stealthily  made  a  step  nearer  the  af- 
frighted animal.  With  a  sudden  sidelong 
snap,  it  swiftly  bounded  by  his  side,  and 
vanished  in  the  thicket ;  and  Pereo,  turning 
wildly,  with  a  moan  sank  down  helplessly  on 
the  grave  of  his  forefathers. 


CHAPTER  VI. 

To  the  open  chagrin  of  most  of  the  gentle- 
men and  the  unexpected  relief  of  some  of 
her  own  sex,  Maruja,  after  an  evening  of 
more  than  usual  caprice  and  willfulness,  re- 
tired early  to  her  chamber.  Here  she  be- 
guiled Enriquita,  a  younger  sister,  to  share 
her  solitude  for  an  hour,  and  with  a  new  and 
charming  melancholy  presented  her  with  ma- 
ture counsel  and  some  younger  trinkets  and 
adornments. 

"  Thou  wilt  find  them  but  folly,  'Riquita ; 
but  thou  art  young,  and  wilt  outgrow  them 
as  I  have.  I  am  sick  of  the  Indian  beads, 
everybody  wears  them ;  but  they  seem  to 
suit  thy  complexion.  Thou  art  not  yet  quite 
old  enough  for  jewelry ;  but  take  thy  choice 
of  these."  "  'Ruja,"  replied  Enriquita,  ea- 
gerly, "  surely  thou  wilt  not  give  up  this 


MARUJA.  131 

necklace  of  carved  amber,  that  was  brought 
thee  from  Manilla  ?  —  it  becomes  thee  so ! 
Everybody  says  it.  All  the  caballeros,  Ray- 
mond and  Victor,  swear  that  it  sets  off  thy 
beauty  like  nothing  else."  "When  thou 
knowest  men  better,"  responded  Maruja,  in 
a  deep  voice,  "  thou  wilt  care  less  for  what 
they  say,  and  despise  what  they  do.  Be- 
sides, I  wore  it  to-day  —  and  —  I  hate  it." 
"  But  what  fan  wilt  thou  keep  thyself  ?  The 
one  of  sandal  -  wood  thou  hadst  to-day  ?  " 
continued  Enriquita,  timidly  eying  the  pretty 
things  upon  the  table.  "  None,"  responded 
Maruja,  didactically,  "  but  the  simplest, 
which  I  shall  buy  myself.  Truly,  it  is  time 
to  set  one's  self  against  this  extravagance. 
Girls  think  nothing  of  spending  as  much 
upon  a  fan  as  would  buy  a  horse  and  saddle 
for  a  poor  man."  "  But  why  so  serious  to- 
night, my  sister?"  said  the  little  Enri- 
quita, her  eyes  filling  with  ready  tears.  "  It 
grieves  me,"  responded  Maruja,  promptly, 
"  to  find  thee,  like  the  rest,  giving  thy  soul 


132  MARUJA. 

up  to  the  mere  glitter  of  the  world.  How- 
ever, go,  child,  take  the  beads,  but  leave  the 
amber ;  it  would  make  thee  yellower  than 
thou  art,  which  the  blessed  Virgin  forbid ! 
Good-night !  " 

She  kissed  her  affectionately,  and  pushed 
her  from  the  room.  Nevertheless,  after  a 
moment's  survey  of  her  lonely  chamber,  she 
hastily  slipped  on  a  pale  satin  dressing-gown, 
and,  darting  across  the  passage,  dashed  into 
the  bed-room  of  the  youngest  Miss  Wilson, 
haled  that  sentimental  brunette  from  her 
night  toilet,  dragged  her  into  her  own  cham- 
ber, and,  enwrapping  her  in  a  huge  mantle 
of  silk  and  gray  fur,  fed  her  with  chocolates 
and  chestnuts,  and,  reclining  on  her  sympa- 
thetic shoulder,  continued  her  arraignment 
of  the  world  and  its  follies  until  nearly  day- 
break. 

It  was  past  noon  when  Maruja  awoke,  to 
find  Faquita  standing  by  her  bedside  with 
ill-concealed  impatience. 

"  I  ventured  to  awaken  the  Dona  Maruja," 


MARUJA.  133 

she  said,  with  vivacious  alacrity,  "  for  news  ! 
Terrible  news !  The  American,  Dr.  West,  is 
found  dead  this  morning  in  the  San  Jose* 
road !  " 

"  Dr.  West  dead !  "  repeated  Maruja, 
thoughtfully,  but  without  emotion. 

"  Surely  dead  —  very  dead.  He  was 
thrown  from  his  horse  and  dragged  by  the 
stirrups  —  how  far,  the  Blessed  Virgin  only 
knows.  But  he  is  found  dead  —  this  Dr. 
West  —  his  foot  in  the  broken  stirrup,  his 
hand  holding  a  piece  of  the  bridle !  I  thought 
I  would  waken  the  Dona  Maruja,  that  no 
one  else  should  break  it  to  the  Dona  Maria." 

"  That  no  one  else  should  break  it  to  my 
mother  ?  "  repeated  Maruja,  coldly.  "  What 
mean  you,  girl  ?  " 

"  I  mean  that  no  stranger  should  tell  her," 
stammered  Faquita,  lowering  her  bold  eyes. 

"You  mean,"  said  Maruja,  slowly,  "that 
no  silly,  staring,  tongue  -  wagging  gossip 
should  dare  to  break  upon  the  morning 
devotions  of  the  lady  mother  with  open- 


134  MARUJA. 

mouthed  tales  of  horror !  You  are  wise, 
Faquita  !  I  will  tell  her  myself.  Help  me 
to  dress." 

But  the  news  had  already  touched  the 
outer  shell  of  the  great  house,  and  little 
groups  of  the  visitors  were  discussing  it  upon 
the  veranda.  For  once,  the  idle  badinage 
of  a  pleasure  -  seeking  existence  was  sus- 
pended ;  stupid  people  with  facts  came  to 
the  fore ;  practical  people  with  inquiring 
minds  became  interesting ;  servants  were 
confidentially  appealed  to  ;  the  local  express 
man  became  a  hero,  and  it  was  even  noticed 
that  he  was  intelligent  and  good-looking. 

"  What  makes  it  more  distressing,"  said 
Raymond,  joining  one  of  the  groups,  "  is, 
that  it  appears  the  Doctor  visited  Mrs.  Sal- 
tonstall  last  evening,  and  left  the  casa  at 
eleven.  Sanchez,  who  was  perhaps  the  last 
person  who  saw  him  alive,  says  that  he 
noticed  his  horse  was  very  violent,  and  the 
Doctor  did  not  seem  able  to  control  him. 
The  accident  probably  happened  half  an 


MARUJA,  135 

hour  later,  as  he  was  picked  up  about  three 
miles  from  here,  and  from  appearances  must 
have  been  dragged,  with  his  foot  in  the  stir- 
rup, fully  half  a  mile  before  the  girth  broke 
and  freed  the  saddle  and  stirrup  together. 
The  mustang,  with  nothing  on  but  his  broken 
bridle,  was  found  grazing  at  the  rancho  as 
early  as  four  o'  clock,  an  hour  before  the 
body  of  his  master  was  discovered  by  the 
men  sent  from  the  rancho  to  look  for  him.'9 
"Eh,  but  the  man  must  have  been  clean 
daft  to  have  trusted  himself  to  one  of  those 
savage  beasts  of  the  country,"  said  Mr.  Bu- 
chanan. "  And  he  was  no  so  young  either 
—  about  sixty,  I  should  say.  It  didna  look 
even  respectable,  I  remember,  when  we  met 
him  the  other  day,  careering  over  the  coun- 
try for  all  the  world  like  one  of  those  crazy 
Mexicans.  And  yet  he  seemed  steady  and 
sensible  enough  when  he  didna  let  his 
schemes  of  '  improvements '  run  away  with 
him  like  yon  furious  beastie.  Eh  well,  puir 
man  —  it  was  a  sudden  ending  !  And  his 
family  —  eh  ?  " 


136  MARUJA. 

"  I  don't  think  he  has  one  —  at  least  here," 
said  Raymond.  "  You  can't  always  tell  in 
California.  I  believe  he  was  a  widower." 

"  Ay,  man,  but  the  heirs  ;  there  must  be 
considerable  property  ? "  said  Buchanan, 
impatiently. 

"  Oh,  the  heirs.  If  he  's  made  no  will, 
which  does  n't  look  like  so  prudent  and  prac- 
tical a  man  as  he  was  —  the  heirs  will  prob- 
ably crop  up  some  day." 

"  Probably  !  crop  up  some  day,"  repeated 
Buchanan,  aghast. 

"  Yes.  You  must  remember  that  we 
don't  take  heirs  quite  as  much  into  account 
as  you  do  in  the  old  country.  The  loss  of 
the  man,  and  how  to  replace  him,  is  much 
more  to  us  than  the  disposal  of  his  property. 
Now,  Doctor  West  was  a  power  far  beyond 
his  actual  possessions  —  and  wre  will  know 
very  soon  how  much  those  were  dependent 
upon  him." 

"  What  do  you  mean  ?  "  asked  Buchanan, 
anxiously. 


MARUJA.  137 

"  I  mean  that  five  minutes  after  the  news 
of  the  Doctor's  death  was  confirmed,  your 
friend  Mr.  Stanton  sent  a  messenger  with 
a  despatch  to  the  nearest  telegraphic  office, 
and  that  he  himself  drove  over  to  catch 
Aladdin  before  the  news  could  reach  him." 

Buchanan  looked  uneasy  ;  so  did  one  or 
two  of  the  native  Calif ornians  who  composed 
the  group,  and  who  had  been  listening  at- 
tentively. "  And  where  is  this  same  tele- 
graphic office  ?  "  asked  Buchanan,  cautiously. 

"  I  '11  drive  you  over  there  presently,"  re- 
sponded Raymond,  grimly.  "  There  '11  be 
nothing  doing  here  to-day.  As  Dr.  West 
was  a  near  neighbor  of  the  family,  his 
death  suspends  our  pleasure-seeking  until 
after  the  funeral." 

Mr.  Buchanan  moved  away.  Captain 
Carroll  and  Gamier  drew  nearer  the  speak- 
er. "I  trust  it  will  not  withdraw  from  us 
the  society  of  Miss  Salton stall,"  said  Gar- 
nier,  lightly  —  "  at  least,  that  she  will  not 
be  inconsolable." 


138  MARUJA. 

"  She  did  not  seem  to  be  particularly 
sympathetic  with  Dr.  West  the  other  day," 
said  Captain  Carroll,  coloring  slightly  with 
the  recollection  of  the  morning  in  the  sum- 
mer-house, yet  willing,  in  his  hopeless  pas- 
sion, even  to  share  that  recollection  with  his 
rival.  "  Did  you  not  think  so,  Monsieur 
Gamier  ?  " 

"  Very  possibly  ;  and,  as  Miss  Saltonstall 
is  quite  artless  and  childlike  in  the  expres- 
sion of  her  likes  and  dislikes,"  said  Ray- 
mond, with  the  faintest  touch  of  irony,  "  you 
can  judge  as  well  as  I  can." 

Garnier  parried  the  thrust  lightly.  "  You 
are  no  kinder  to  our  follies  than  you  are 
to  the  grand  passions  of  these  gentlemen. 
Confess,  you  frightened  them  horribly.  You 
are  —  what  is  called  —  a  bear  —  eh  ?  You 
depreciate  in  the  interests  of  business." 

Raymond  did  not  at  first  appear  to  no- 
tice the  sarcasm.  "  I  only  stated,"  he  said, 
gravely,  "  that  which  these  gentlemen  will 
find  out  for  themselves  before  they  are  many 


MARUJA.  139 

hours  older.  Dr.  West  was  the  brain  of 
the  county,  as  Aladdin  is  its  life-blood.  It 
only  remains  to  be  seen  how  far  the  loss  of 
that  brain  affects  the  county.  The  Stock 
Exchange  market  in  San  Francisco  will  in- 
dicate that  to-day  in  the  shares  of  the  San 
Antonio  and  Soquel  Railroad  and  the  West 
Mills  and  Manufacturing  Co.  It  is  a  mat- 
ter that  may  affect  even  our  friends  here. 
Whatever  West's  social  standing  was  in 
this  house,  lately  he  was  in  confidential 
business  relations  with  Mrs.  Saltonstall." 
He  raised  his  eyes  for  the  first  time  to  Gar- 
nier  as  he  added,  slowly,  "  It  is  to  be  hoped 
that  if  our  hostess  has  no  social  reasons  to 
deplore  the  loss  of  Dr.  West,  she  at  least 
will  have  no  other." 

With  a  lover's  instinct,  conscious  only 
of  some  annoyance  to  Maruja,  in  all  this, 
Carroll  anxiously  looked  for  her  appearance 
among  the  others.  He  was  doomed  to  dis- 
appointment, however.  His  half -timid  in- 
quiries only  resulted  in  the  information  that 


140  MARUJA. 

Maruja  was  closeted  with  her  mother.  The 
penetralia  of  the  casa  was  only  accessible 
to  the  family  ;  yet,  as  he  wandered  uneasily 
about,  he  could  not  help  passing  once  or 
twice  before  the  quaint  low  archway,  with 
its  grated  door,  that  opened  from  the  central 
hall.  His  surprise  may  be  imagined  when 
he  suddenly  heard  his  name  uttered  in  a  low 
voice ;  and,  looking  up,  he  beheld  the  soft 
eyes  of  Maruja  at  the  grating. 

She  held  the  door  partly  open  with  one 
little  hand,  and  made  a  sign  for  him  to 
enter  with  the  other.  When  he  had  done 
so,  she  said,  "  Come  with  me,"  and  preceded 
him  down  the  dim  corridor.  His  heart  beat 
thickly ;  the  incense  of  this  sacred  inner 
life,  with  its  faint  suggestion  of  dead  rose- 
leaves,  filled  him  with  a  voluptuous  languor ; 
his  breath  was  lost,  as  if  a  soft  kiss  had 
taken  it  away ;  his  senses  swam  in  the  light 
mist  that  seemed  to  suffuse  everything.  His 
step  trembled  as  she  suddenly  turned  aside, 
and,  opening  a  door,  ushered  him  into  a 
small  vaulted  chamber. 


MARUJA.  141 

In  the  first  glance  it  seemed  to  be  an 
oratory  or  chapel.  A  large  gold  and  ebony 
crucifix  hung  on  the  wall.  There  was  a 
prie-dieu  of  heavy  dark  mahogany  in  the 
centre  of  the  tiled  floor ;  there  was  a  low 
ottoman  or  couch,  covered  with  a  mantle  of 
dark  violet  velvet,  like  a  pall ;  there  were 
two  quaintly  carved  stiff  chairs  ;  a  religious, 
almost  ascetic,  air  pervaded  the  apartment ; 
but  no  dreamy  eastern  seraglio  could  have 
affected  him  with  an  intoxication  so  pro- 
foundly and  mysteriously  sensuous. 

Maruja  pointed  to  a  chair,  and  then,  with 
a  peculiarly  feminine  movement,  placed  her- 
self sideways  upon  the  ottoman,  half  re- 
clining on  her  elbow  on  a  high  cushion,  her 
deep  billowy  flounces  partly  veiling  the  fu- 
nereal velvet  below.  Her  oval  face  was  pale 
and  melancholy,  her  eyes  moist  as  if  with 
recent  tears,  ;  an  expression  as  of  troubled 
passion  lurked  in  their  depths  and  in  the 
corners  of  her  mouth.  Scarcely  knowing 
why,  Carroll  fancied  that  thus  she  might 


142  MARUJA. 

appear  if  she  were  in  love ;  and  the  daring 
thought  made  him  tremble. 

"  I  wanted  to  speak  with  you  alone,"  she 
said,  gently,  as  if  in  explanation ;  "  but 
don't  look  at  me  so.  I  have  had  a  bad 
night,  and  now  this  calamity  "  —  she  stopped 
and  then  added,  softly,  "  I  want  you  to  do  a 
favor  for  —  my  mother  ?  " 

Captain  Carroll,  with  an  effort,  at  last 
found  his  voice.  "  But  you  are  in  trouble  ; 
you  are  suffering.  I  had  no  idea  this  un- 
fortunate affair  came  so  near  to  you." 

"  Nor  did  I,"  said  Maruja,  closing  her  fan 
with  a  slight  snap.  "  I  knew  nothing  of  it 
until  my  mother  told  me  this  morning.  To 
be  frank  with  you,  it  now  appears  that  Dr. 
West  was  her  most  intimate  business  ad- 
viser. All  her  affairs  were'  in  his  hands.  I 
cannot  explain  how,  or  why,  or  when ;  but 
it  is  so." 

"And  is  that  all?"  said  Carroll,  with 
boyish  openness  of  relief.  "  And  you  have 
no  other  sorrow  ?  " 


MARUJA.  143 

In  spite  of  herself,  a  tender  smile,  such 
as  she  might  have  bestowed  on  an  impulsive 
boy,  broke  on  her  lips.  "  And  is  that  not 
enough  ?  What  would  you  ?  No  —  sit  where 
you  are !  We  are  here  to  talk  seriously. 
And  you  do  not  ask  what  is  this  favor  my 
mother  wishes  ?  " 

"  No  matter  what  it  is,  it  shall  be  done," 
said  Carroll,  quickly.  "I  am  your  mother's 
slave  if  she  will  but  let  me  serve  at  your 
side.  Only,"  he  paused,  "  I  wish  it  was  not 
business  —  I  know  nothing  of  business." 

."If  it  were  only  business,  Captain  Car- 
roll," said  Maruja,  slowly,  "  I  would  have 
spoken  to  Raymond  or  the  Serior  Buchanan ; 
if  it  were  only  confidence,  Pereo,  our  mayor- 
domo,  would  have  dragged  himself  from  his 
sick-bed  this  morning  to  do  my  mother's 
bidding.  But  it  is  more  than  that  —  it  is 
the  functions  of  a  gentleman  —  and  my 
mother,  Captain  Carroll,  would  like  to  say 
of  —  a  friend." 

He  seized  her  hand  and  covered  it  with 
kisses.  She  withdrew  it  gently. 


144  MARUJA. 

"  What  have  I  to  do  ?  "  he  asked,  eagerly. 

She  drew  a  note  from  her  belt.  "It  is 
very  simple.  You  must  ride  over  to  Alad- 
din with  that  note.  You  must  give  it  to 
him  alone  —  more  than  that,  you  must  not 
let  any  one  who  may  be  there  think  you  are 
making  any  but  a  social  call.  If  he  keeps 
you  to  dine  —  you  must  stay  —  you  will 
bring  back  anything  he  may  give  you  and 
deliver  it  to  me  secretly  for  her." 

"Is  that  all?"  asked  Carroll,  with  a  slight 
touch  of  disappointment  in  his  tone. 

"No,"  said  Maruja,  rising  impulsively. 
"  No,  Captain  Carroll  —  it  is  not  all !  And 
you  shall  know  all,  if  only  to  prove  to  you 
how  we  confide  in  you  —  and  to  leave  you 
free,  after  you  have  heard  it,  to  do  as  you 
please."  She  stood  before  him,  quite  white, 
opening  and  shutting  her  fan  quickly,  and 
tapping  the  tiled  floor  with  her  little  foot. 
"  I  have  told  you  Dr.  West  was  my  mother's 
business  adviser.  She  looked  upon  him  as 
more  —  as  a  friend.  Do  you  know  what  a 


MARUJA.  145 

dangerous  thing  it  is  for  a  woman  who  has 
lost  one  protector  to  begin  to  rely  upon 
another  ?  Well,  my  mother  is  not  yet  old. 
Dr.  West  appreciated  her  —  Dr.  West  did 
not  depreciate  himself  —  two  things  that  go 
far  with  a  woman,  Captain  Carroll,  and  my 
mother  is  a  woman."  She  paused,  and  then, 
with  a  light  toss  of  her  fan,  said :  "  Well,  to 
make  an  end,  but  for  this  excellent  horse 
and  this  too  ambitious  rider,  one  knows  not 
how  far  the  old  story  of  my  mother's  first 
choice  would  have  been  repeated,  and  the 
curse  of  Koorotora  again  fallen  on  the 
land." 

"  And  you  tell  me  this  —  you,  Maruja  —  - 
you  who  warned  me  against  my  hopeless 
passion  for  you  ?  " 

"  Could  I  foresee  this?  "  she  said,  passion- 
ately ;  "  and  are  you  mad  enough  not  to  see 
that  this  very  act  would  have  made  your 
suit  intolerable  to  my  relations  ?  " 

"Then  you  did  think  of  my  suit,  Ma- 
ruja ?  "  he  said,  grasping  her  hand. 


146  MARUJA. 

"  Or  any  one's  suit,"  she  continued,  hur- 
riedly, turning  away  with  a  slight  increase 
of  color  in  her  cheeks.  After  a  moment's 
pause,  she  added,  in  a  gentler  and  half-re- 
proachful voice,  "  Do  you  think  I  have  con- 
fided my  mother's  story  to  you  for  this  pur- 
pose only  ?  Is  this  the  help  you  proffer  ?  " 

"Forgive  me,  Maruja,"  said  the  young 
officer,  earnestly.  "  I  am  selfish,  I  know  — 
for  I  love  you.  But  you  have  not  told  me 
yet  how  I  could  help  your  mother  by  deliv- 
ering this  letter,  which  any  one  could  do." 

"  Let  me  finish,  then,"  said  Maruja.  "It 
is  for  you  to  judge  what  may  be  done. 
Letters  have  passed  between  my  mother  and 
Dr.  West.  My  mother  is  imprudent ;  I 
know  not  what  she  may  have  written,  or 
what  she  might  not  write,  in  confidence. 
But  you  understand,  they  are  not  letters  to 
be  made  public  nor  to  pass  into  any  hands 
but  hers.  They  are  not  to  be  left  to  be 
bandied  about  by  his  American  friends; 
to  be  commented  upon  by  strangers ;  to 


MARUJA.  147 

reach  the  ears  of  the  Guitierrez.  They  be- 
long to  that  grave  which  lies  between  the 
Past  and  my  mother;  they  must  not  rise 
from  it  to  haunt  her." 

"I  understand,"  said  the  young  officer, 
quietly.  "  This  letter,  then,  is  my  authority 
to  recover  them  ?  " 

"  Partly,  though  it  refers  to  other  matters. 
This  Mr.  Prince,  whom  you  Americans  call 
Aladdin,  was  a  friend  of  Dr.  West ;  they 
were  associated  in  business,  and  he  will 
probably  have  access  to  his  papers.  The 
rest  we  must  leave  to  you." 

"  I  think  you  may,"  said  Carroll,  simply. 

Maruja  stretched  out  her  hand.  The 
young  man  bent  over  it  respectfully  and 
moved  towards  the  door. 

She  had  expected  him  to  make  some  prot- 
estation—  perhaps  even  to  claim  some  re- 
ward. But  the  instinct  which  made  him 
forbear  even  in  thought  to  take  advantage 
of  the  duty  laid  upon  him,  which  dominated 
even  his  miserable  passion  for  her,  and  made 


148  MARUJA. 

it  subservient  to  his  exaltation  of  honor; 
this  epaulet  of  the  officer,  and  blood  of  the 
gentleman,  this  simple  possession  of  knight- 
hood not  laid  on  by  perfunctory  steel,  but 
springing  from  within  —  all  this,  I  grieve 
to  say,  was  partly  unintelligible  to  Maruja, 
and  not  entirely  satisfactory.  Since  he 
had  entered  the  room  they  seemed  to  have 
changed  their  situations ;  he  was  no  longer 
the  pleading  lover  that  trembled  at  her  feet. 
For  one  base  moment  she  thought  it  was 
the  result  of  his  knowledge  of  her  mother's 
weakness  ;  but  the  next  instant,  meeting  his 
clear  glance,  she  colored  with  shame.  Yet 
she  detained  him  vaguely  a  moment  before 
the  grated  door  in  the  secure  shadow  of  the 
arch.  He  might  have  kissed  her  there ! 
He  did  not. 

In  the  gloomy  stagnation  of  the  great 
house,  it  was  natural  that  he  should  escape 
from  it  for  a  while,  and  the  saddling  of  his 
horse  for  a  solitary  ride  attracted  no  atten- 
tion. But  it  might  have  been  noticed  that 


MARUJA.  149 

his  manner  had  lost  much  of  that  nervous 
susceptibility  and  anxiety  which  indicates  a 
lover ;  and  it  was  with  a  return  of  his  pro- 
fessional coolness  and  precision  that  he  rode 
out  of  the  patio  as  if  on  parade.  Erect,  ob- 
servant, and  self-possessed,  he  felt  himself 
"  on  duty,"  and,  putting  spurs  to  his  horse, 
cantered  along  the  high-road,  finding  an  in- 
expressible relief  in  motion.  He  was  doing 
something  in  the  interest  of  helplessness  and 
of  her.  He  had  no  doubt  of  his  right  to  in- 
terfere. He  did  not  bother  himself  with 
the  rights  of  others.  Like  all  self-contained 
men,  he  had  no  plan  of  action,  except  what 
the  occasion  might  suggest. 

He  was  more  than  two  miles  from  La 
Mision  Perdida,  when  his  quick  eye  was 
attracted  by  a  saddle-blanket  lying  in  the 
roadside  ditch.  A  recollection  of  the  ca- 
lamity of  the  previous  night  made  him  rein 
in  his  horse  and  examine  it.  It  was  with- 
out doubt  the  saddle-blanket  of  Dr.  West's 
horse,  lost  when  the  saddle  came  off,  after 


150  MARUJA. 

the  Doctor's  body  had  been  dragged  by  the 
runaway  beast.  But  a  second  fact  forced 
itself  equally  upon  the  young  officer.  It 
was  lying  nearly  a  mile  from  the  spot  where 
the  body  had  been  picked  up.  This  cer- 
tainly did  not  agree  with  the  accepted  theory 
that  the  accident  had  taken  place  further 
on,  and  that  the  body  had  been  dragged 
until  the  saddle  came  off  where  it  was  found. 
His  professional  knowledge  of  equitation 
and  the  technique  of  accoutrements  ex- 
ploded the  idea  that  the  saddle  could  have 
slipped  here,  the  saddle-blanket  fallen,  and 
the  horse  have  run  nearly  a  mile  hampered 
by  the  saddle  hanging  under  him.  Conse- 
quently, the  saddle,  blanket,  and  unfortunate 
rider  must  have  been  precipitated  together, 
and  at  the  same  moment,  on  or  near  this 
very  spot.  Captain  Carroll  was  not  a  de- 
tective ;  he  had  no  theory  to  establish,  no 
motive  to  discover,  only  as  an  officer,  he 
would  have  simply  rejected  any  excuse  of- 
fered on  those  terms  by  one  of  his  troopers 


MARUJA.  151 

to  account  for  a  similar  accident.  He 
troubled  himself  with  no  further  deduction. 
Without  dismounting,  he  gave  a  closer  at- 
tention to  the  marks  of  struggling  hoofs 
near  the  edge  of  the  ditch,  which  had  not 
yet  been  obliterated  by  the  daily  travel.  In 
doing  so,  his  horse's  hoof  struck  a  small  ob- 
ject partly  hidden  in  the  thick  dust  of  the 
highway.  It  seemed  to  be  a  leather  letter 
or  memorandum  case  adapted  for  the  breast 
pocket.  Carroll  instantly  dismounted  and 
picked  it  up.  The  name  and  address  of 
Dr.  West  were  legibly  written  on  the  inside. 
It  contained  a  few  papers  and  notes,  but 
nothing  more.  The  possibility  that  it  might 
disclose  the  letters  he  was  seeking  was  a 
hope  quickly  past.  It  was  only  a  corrobo- 
rative fact  that  the  accident  had  taken  place 
on  the  spot  where  he  was  standing.  He 
was  losing  time  ;  he  hurriedly  put  the  book 
in  his  pocket,  and  once  more  spurred  for- 
ward on  his  road. 


CHAPTER  VII. 

THE  exterior  of  Aladdin's  Palace,  familiar 
as  it  already  was  to  Carroll,  ^struck  him  that 
afternoon  as  looking  more  than  usually  un- 
real, ephemeral,  and  unsubstantial.  The 
Moorish  arches,  of  the  thinnest  white  pine  ; 
the  arabesque  screens  and  lattices  that 
looked  as  if  made  of  pierced  cardboard ;  the 
golden  minarets  that  seemed  to  be  glued  to 
the  shell-like  towers,  and  the  hollow  battle- 
ments that  visibly  warped  and  cracked  in 
the  fierce  sunlight,  —  all  appeared  more  than 
ever  like  a  theatrical  scene  that  might  sink 
through  the  ground,  or  vanish  on  either  side 
to  the  sound  of  the  prompter's  whistle.  Re- 
calling Raymond's  cynical  insinuations,  he 
could  not  help  fancying  that  the  house  had 
been  built  by  a  conscientious  genie  with  a 
view  to  the  possibility  of  the  lamp  and  the 


MARUJA.  153 

ring   passing1,  with   other   effects,   into   the 
hands  of  the  sheriff. 

Nevertheless,  the  servant  who  took  Cap- 
tain Carroll's  horse  summoned  another  do- 
mestic, who  preceded  him  into  a  small 
waiting-room  off  the  gorgeous  central  hall, 
which  looked  not  unlike  the  private  bar- 
room of  a  first-class  hotel,  and  presented 
him  with  a  sherry  cobbler.  It  was  a  pecul- 
iarity of  Aladdin's  Palace  that  the  host 
seldom  did  the  honors  of  his  own  house, 
but  usually  deputed  the  task  to  some^  friend, 
and  generally  the  last  new-comer.  Carroll 
was  consequently  not  surprised  when  he  was 
presently  joined  by  an  utter  stranger,  who 
again  pressed  upon  him  the  refreshment  he 
had  just  declined.  "  You  see,"  said  the 
transitory  host,  "  I  'm  a  stranger  myself 
here,  and  have  n't  got  the  ways  of  the  reg- 
ular customers  ;  but  call  for  anything  you 
like,  and  I  '11  see  it  got  for  you.  Jim  " 
(the  actual  Christian  name  of  Aladdin)  "  is 
headin'  a  party  through  the  stables.  Would 


154  MARUJA. 

you  like  to  join  'em  —  they  ain't  more  than 
half  through  now  —  or  will  you  come  right 
to  the  billiard-room  —  the  latest  thing  out 
in  stained  glass  and  iron  —  ez  pretty  as  fresh 
paint?  or  will  you  meander  along  to  the 
bridal  suite,  and  see  the  bamboo  and  silver 
dressing-room,  and  the  white  satin  and  crys- 
tal bed  that  cost  fifteen  thousand  dollars  as 
it  stands.  Or,"  he  added,  confidentially, 
"  would  you  like  to  cut  the  whole  cussed 
thing,  and  I  '11  get  out  Jim's  2.32  trotter 
and  his  spider  -  legged  buggy,  and  we  '11 
take  a  spin  over  to  the  Springs  afore  din- 
ner?" It  was,  however,  more  convenient 
to  Carroll's  purpose  to  conceal  his  familiar- 
ity with  the  Aladdin  treasures,  and  to  po- 
litely offer  to  follow  his  guide  through  the 
house.  "  I  reckon  Jim  's  pretty  busy  just 
now,"  continued  the  stranger :  "  what  with 
old  Doc  West  going  under  so  suddent,  just 
ez  he  'd  got  things  boomin'  with  that  rail- 
road and  his  manufactory  company.  The 
stocks  went  down  to  nothing  this  morning ; 


MARUJA.  155 

and,  'twixt  you  and  me,  the  boys  say,"  be 
added,  mysteriously  sinking  bis  voice,  "it 
was  jest  tbe  tightest  squeeze  there  whether 
there  wouldn't  be  a  general  burst-up  all 
round.  But  Jim  was  over  at  San  Antonio 
afore  the  Doctor's  body  was  laid  out ;  just 
ran  that  telegraph  himself  for  about  two 
hours  ;  had  a  meeting  of  trustees  and  direc- 
tors afore  the  Coroner  came ;  had  the  Doc- 
tor's books  and  papers  brought  over  here  in 
a  buggy,  and  another  meeting  before  lun- 
cheon. Why,  by  the  time  the 'other  fellows 
began  to  drop  in  to  know  if  the  Doctor  was 
really  dead,  Jim  Prince  h'ad  discounted  the 
whole  affair  two  years  ahead.  Why,  bless 
you,  nearly  everybody  is  in  it.  That  Span- 
ish woman  over  there,  with  the  pretty  daugh- 
ter —  that  high-toned  Greaser  with  the  big 
house  —  you  know  who  I  mean  "... 

"  I  don't  think  I  do,"  said  Carroll,  coldly. 
"  I  know  a  lady  named  Saltonstall,  with  sev- 
eral daughters*" 

"  That 's  her  ;  thought  I  'd  seen  you  there 


156  MARUJA. 

once.  Well,  the  Doctor 's  got  her  into  it,  up 
to  the  eyes.  I  reckon  she 's  mortgaged  every- 
thing to  him." 

It  required  all  Carroll's  trained  self-pos- 
session to  prevent  his  garrulous  guide  from 
reading  his  emotion  in  his  face.  This,  then, 
was  the  secret  of  Maruja's  melancholy.  Poor 
child  !  how  bravely  she  had  borne  up  under 
it ;  and  Ae,  in  his  utter  selfishness,  had  never 
suspected  it.  Perhaps  that  letter  was  her 
delicate  way  of  breaking  the  news  to  him, 
for  he  should  certainly  now  hear  it  all  from 
Aladdin's  lips.  And  this  man,  who  evi- 
dently had  succeeded  to  the  control  of  Dr. 
West's  property,  doubtless  had  possession  of 
the  letters  too  !  Humph !  He  shut  his  lips 
firmly  together,  and  strode  along  by  the  side 
of  his  innocent  guide,  erect  and  defiant. 

He  did  not  have  long  to  wait.  The  sound 
of  voices,  the  opening  of  doors,  and  the 
trampling  of  feet  indicated  that  the  other 
party  were  being  "  shown  over "  that  part 
of  the  building  Carroll  and  his  companion 


MARUJA.  157 

were  approaching.  "  There  's  Jim  and  his 
gang  now,"  said  his  cicerone  ;  "  I  '11  tell  him 
you  're  here,  and  step  out  of  this  show  busi- 
ness myself.  So  long !  I  reckon  I  '11  see 
you  at  dinner."  At  this  moment  Prince  and 
a  number  of  ladies  and  gentlemen  appeared 
at  the  further  end  of  the  hall ;  his  late  guide 
joined  them,  and  apparently  indicated  Car- 
roll's presence,  as,  with  a  certain  lounging, 
off-duty,  officer -like  way,  the  young  man 
sauntered  on. 

Aladdin,  like  others  of  his  class,  objected 
to  the  military,  theoretically  and  practically ; 
but  he  was  not  above  recognizing  their  social 
importance  in  a  country  of  no  society,  and 
of  even  being  fascinated  by  Carroll's  quiet 
and  secure  self-possession  and  self-content- 
ment in  a  community  of  restless  ambition 
and  aggressive  assertion.  He  came  forward 
to  welcome  him  cordially ;  he  introduced 
him  with  an  air  of  satisfaction ;  he  would 
have  preferred  if  he  had  been  in  uniform, 
but  he  contented  himself  with  the  fact  that 


158  MARUJA. 

Carroll,  like  all  men  of  disciplined  limbs, 
carried  himself  equally  well  in  mufti. 

"  You  have  shown  us  everything,"  said 
Carroll,  smiling,  "  except  the  secret  chamber 
where  you  keep  the  magic  lamp  and  ring. 
Are  we  not  to  see  the  spot  where  the  incan- 
tation that  produces  these  marvels  is  held, 
even  if  we  are  forbidden  to  witness  the  cere- 
mony? The  ladies  are  dying  to  see  your 
sanctum  —  your  study  —  your  workshop  — 
where  you  really  live." 

"  You  '11  find  it  a  mere  den,  as  plain  as  my 
bed-room,"  said  Prince,  who  prided  himself 
on  the  Spartan  simplicity  of  his  own  hab- 
its, and  was  not  averse  to  the  exhibition. 
"  Come  this  way."  He  crossed  the  hall,  and 
entered  a  small,  plainly  furnished  room,  con- 
taining a  table  piled  with  papers,  some  of 
which  were  dusty  and  worn-looking.  Car- 
roll instantly  conceived  the  idea  that  these 
were  Dr.  West's  property.  He  took  his  let- 
ter quietly  from  his  pocket ;  and,  when  the 
attention  of  the  others  was  diverted,  laid  it 


MARUJA.  159 

on  the  table,  with  the  remark,  in  an  under- 
tone, audible  only  to  Prince,  "From  Mrs. 
Saltonstall." 

Aladdin  had  that  sublime  audacity  which 
so  often  fills  the  place  of  tact.  Casting  a 
rapid  glance  at  Carroll,  he  cried,  "  Hallo  !  " 
and,  wheeling  suddenly  round  on  his  follow- 
ing guests,  with  a  bewildering  extravagance 
of.  playful  brusqueness,  actually  bundled 
them  from  the  room.  "The  incantation  is 
on !  "  he  cried,  waving  his  arms  in  the  air ; 
"  the  genie  is  at  work.  No  admittance  ex- 
cept on  business  !  Follow  Miss  Wilson,"  he 
added,  clapping  both  hands  on  the  shoulders 
of  the  prettiest  and  shyest  young  lady  of 
the  party,  with  an  irresistible  paternal  fa- 
miliarity. "  She 's  your  hostess.  I  '11  honor 
her  drafts  to  any  amount ;  "  and  before  they 
were  aware  of  his  purpose,  or  that  Carroll 
was  no  longer  among  them,  Aladdin  had 
closed  the  door,  that  shut  with  a  spring 
lock,  and  was  alone  with  the  young  man. 
He  walked  quickly  to  his  desk,  took  up  the 
letter,  and  opened  it. 


160  MARUJA. 

His  face  of  dominant,  self-satisfied  good- 
humor  became  set  and  stern.  Without 
taking  the  least  notice  of  Carroll,  he  rose, 
and,  stepping  to  a  telegraph  instrument  at  a 
side  table,  manipulated  half  a  dozen  ivory 
knobs  with  a  sudden  energy.  Then  he  re- 
turned to  the  table,  and  began  hurriedly  to 
glance  over  the  memoranda  and  indorse- 
ments of  the  files  of  papers  piled  upon  it. 
Carroll's  quick  eye  caught  sight  of  a  small 
packet  of  letters  in  a  writing  of  unmistak- 
able feminine  delicacy,  and  made  certain 
they  were  the  ones  he  was  in  quest  of. 
Without  raising  his  eyes,  Mr.  Prince  asked, 
almost  rudely, — 

"  Who  else  has  she  told  this  to  ?  " 

"  If  you  refer  to  the  contents  of  that  let- 
ter, it  was  written  and  handed  to  me  about 
three  hours  ago.  It  has  not  been  out  of  my 
possession  since  then." 

"  Humph !  Who 's  at  the  casa  ?  There  's 
Buchanan,  and  Raymond,  and  Victor  Gui- 
tierrez,  eh  ?  " 


MARUJA.  161 

"  I  think  I  can  say  almost  positively  that 
Mrs.  Saltonstall  has  seen  no  one  but  her 
daughter  since  the  news  reached  her,  if  that 
is  what  you  wish  to  know,"  said  Carroll, 
still  following  the  particular  package  of  let- 
ters with  his  eyes,  as  Mr.  Prince  continued 
his  examination.  Prince  stopped. 

"  Are  you  sure  ?  " 

"  Almost  sure." 

Prince  rose,  this  time  with  a  greater  ease 
of  manner,  and,  going  to  the  table,  ran  his 
fingers  over  the  knobs,  as  if  mechanically. 
"  One  would  like  to  know  at  once  all  there 
is  to  know  about  a  transaction  that  changes 
the  front  of  four  millions  of  capital  in  about 
four  hours,  eh,  Captain  ?  "  he  said,  for  the 
first  time  really  regarding  his  guest.  "  Just 
four  hours  ago,  in  this  very  room,  we  found 
out  that  the  widow  Saltonstall  owed  Dr. 
West  about  a  million,  tied  up  in  invest- 
ments, and  we  calculated  to  pull  her  through 
with  perhaps  the  loss  of  half.  If  she  's  got 
this  assignment  of  the  Doctor's  property  that 


162  MARUJA. 

she  speaks  of  in  her  letter,  as  collateral 
security,  and  it 's  all  regular,  and  she  —  so 
to  speak  —  steps  into  Dr.  West's  place,  by 
G — d,  sir,  we  owe  him  about  three  millions, 
and  we  Ve  got  to  settle  with  her  —  and  that 's 
all  about  it.  You  Ve  dropped  a  little  bomb- 
shell in  here,  Captain,  and  the  splinters  are 
flying  around  as  far  as  San  Francisco,  now. 
I  confess  it  beats  me  regularly.  I  always 
thought  the  old  man  was  a  little  keen  over 
there  at  the  casa  —  but  she  was  a  woman, 
and  he  was  a  man  for  all  his  sixty  years, 
and  that  combination  I  never  thought  of. 
I  only  wonder  she  had  n't  gobbled  him  up 
before." 

Captain  Carroll's  face  betrayed  no  trace 
of  the  bewilderment  and  satisfaction  at  this 
news  of  which  he  had  been  the  unconscious 
bearer,  nor  of  resentment  at  the  coarseness 
of  its  translation. 

"  There  does  not  seem  to  be  any  memoran- 
dum of  this  assignment,"  continued  Prince, 
turning  over  the  papers. 


MARUJA.  163 

"  Have  you  looked  here  ?  "  said  Carroll, 
taking  up  the  packet  of  letters. 

"  No  —  they  seem  to  me  some  private 
letters  she  refers  to  in  this  letter,  and  that 
she  wants  back  again." 

"  Let  us  see,"  said  Carroll,  untying  the 
packet.  There  were  three  or  four  closely 
written  notes  in  Spanish  and  English. 

"  Love-letters,  I  reckon,"  said  Prince  — 
"that's  why  the  old  girl  wants  'em  back. 
She  don't  care  to  have  the  wheedling  that 
fetched  the  Doctor  trotted  out  to  the  pub- 
lic." 

"  Let  us  look  more  carefully,"  said  Car- 
roll, pleasantly,  opening  each  letter  before 
Prince,  yet  so  skillfully  as  to  frustrate  any 
attempt  of  the  latter  to  read  them.  "  There 
does  not  seem  to  be  any  memorandum  here. 
They  are  evidently  only  private  letters." 

"  Quite  so,"  said  Prince. 

Captain  Carroll  retied  the  packet  and  put 
it  in  his  pocket.  "  Then  I  '11  return  them  to 
her,"  he  said,  quietly. 


164  MARUJA. 

"  Hullo  !  —  here  —  I  say,"  said  Prince, 
starting  to  his  feet. 

"  I  said  I  would  return  them  to  her,"  re- 
peated Carroll,  calmly. 

"  But  I  never  gave  them  to  you  !  I  never 
consented  to  their  withdrawal  from  the  pa- 
pers." 

"  I  'm  sorry  you  did  not,"  said  Carroll, 
coldly  ;  "it  would  have  been  more  polite." 

"  Polite  !  D— n  it,  sir  !  I  call  this  steal- 
ing." 

"  Stealing,  Mr.  Prince,  is  a  word  that 
might  be  used  by  the  person  who  claims 
these  letters  to  describe  the  act  of  any  one 
who  would  keep  them  from  her.  It  really 
cannot  apply  to  you  or  me." 

"  Once  for  all,  do  you  refuse  to  return 
them  to  me?  "  said  Prince,  pale  with  anger. 

"  Decidedly." 

"  Very  well,  sir !  We  shall  see."  He 
stepped  to  the  corner  and  rang  a  bell.  "  I 
have  summoned  my  manager,  and  will 
charge  you  with  the  theft  in  his  presence." 


MARUJA.  165 

"  I  think  not." 

"  And  why,  sir  ?  " 

"  Because  the  presence  of  a  third  party 
would  enable  me  to  throw  this  glove  in  your 
face,  which,  as  a  gentleman,  I  couldn't  do 
without  witnesses."  Steps  were  heard  along 
the  passage  ;  Prince  was  no  coward  in  a 
certain  way ;  neither  was  he  a  fool.  He 
knew  that  Carroll  would  keep  his  word  ;  he 
knew  that  he  should  have  to  fight  him ;  that, 
whatever  the  issue  of  the  duel  was,  the  cause 
of  the  quarrel  would  be  known,  and  scarcely 
redound  to  his  credit.  At  present  there 
were  no  witnesses  to  the  offered  insult,  and 
none  would  be  wiser.  The  letters  were  not 
worth  it.  He  stepped  to  the  door,  opened 
it,  said,  "  No  matter,"  and  closed  it  again. 

He  returned  with  an  affectation  of  care- 
lessness. "You  are  right.  I  don't  know 
that  I  'm  called  upon  to  make  a  scene  here 
which  the  law  can  do  for  me  as  well  else- 
where. It  will  settle  pretty  quick  whether 
you  've  got  the  right  to  those  letters,  and 


166  MARUJA. 

whether  you  've  taken  the  right  way  to  get 
them,  sir." 

"  I  have  no  desire  to  evade  any  respon- 
sibility in  this  matter,  legal  or  otherwise," 
said  Carroll,  coldly,  rising  to  his  feet. 

"  Look  here,"  said  Prince,  suddenly,  with 
a  return  of  his  brusque  frankness ;  "  you 
might  have  asked  me  for  those  letters,  you 
know." 

"  And  you  would  n't  have  given  them  to 
me,"  said  Carroll. 

Prince  laughed.  "  That 's  so !  I  say, 
Captain.  Did  they  teach  you  this  sort  of 
strategy  at  West  Point  ?  " 

"  They  taught  me  that  I  could  neither  re- 
ceive nor  give  an  insult  under  a  white  flag," 
said  Carroll,  pleasantly.  "And  they  al- 
lowed me  to  make  exchanges  under  the  same 
rule.  I  picked  up  this  pocket-book  on  the 
spot  where  the  accident  occurred  to  Dr. 
West.  It  is  evidently  his.  I  leave  it  with 
you,  who  are  his  executor." 

The  instinct  of  reticence  before  a  man 
with  whom  he  could  never  be  confidential 


MARUJA.  167 

kept  him  from  alluding  to  his  other  dis- 
covery. 

Prince  took  the  pocket-book,  and  opened 
it  mechanically.  After  a  moment's  scrutiny 
of  the  memoranda  it  contained,  his  face  as- 
sumed something  of  the  same  concentrated 
attention  it  wore  at  the  beginning  of  the  in- 
terview. Kaising  his  eyes  suddenly  to  Car- 
roll, he  said,  quickly,  — 

"  You  have  examined  it  ?  " 

"  Only  so  far  as  to  see  that  it  contained 
nothing  of  importance  to  the  person  I  repre- 
sent," returned  Carroll,  simply. 

The  capitalist  looked  at  the  young  officer's 
clear  eyes.  Something  of  embarrassment 
came  into  his  own  as  he  turned  them  away. 

"  Certainly.  Only  memoranda  of  the 
Doctor's  business.  Quite  important  to  us, 
you  know.  But  nothing  referring  to  your 
principal."  He  laughed.  "  Thank  you  for 
the  exchange.  I  say  —  take  a  drink  !  " 

"  Thank  you  —  no  !  "  returned  Carroll, 
going  to  the  door. 

«  Well,  good-by." 


168  MARUJA. 

He  held  out  his  hand.  Carroll,  with  his 
clear  eyes  still  regarding  him,  passed  quietly 
by  the  outstretched  hand,  opened  the  door, 
bowed,  and  made  his  exit. 

A  slight  flush  came  into  Prince's  cheek. 
Then,  as  the  door  closed,  he  burst  into  a 
half-laugh.  Had  he  been  a  dramatic  villain, 
he  would  have  added  to  it  several  lines  of 
soliloquy,  in  which  he  would  have  rehearsed 
the  fact  that  the  opportunity  for  revenge 
had  "  come  at  last  "  ;  that  the  "  haughty 
victor  who  had  just  left  with  his  ill-gotten 
spoil  had  put  into  his  hands  the  weapon  of 
his  friend's  destruction  "  ;  that  the  "  hour 
had  come "  ;  and,  possibly  he  might  have 
said,  "  Ha !  ha !  "  But,  being  a  practical, 
good-natured,  selfish  rascal,  not  much  better 
or  worse  than  his  neighbors-,  he  sat  himself 
down  at  his  desk  and  began  to  carefully  con- 
sider how  he  could  best  make  use  of  this 
memoranda  jotted  down  by  Dr.  West  of  the 
proofs  of  the  existence  of  his  son,  and  the 
consequent  discovery  of  a  legal  heir  to  his 
property. 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

WHEN  Faquita  had  made  sure  that  her 
young  mistress  was  so  securely  closeted  with 
Dona  Maria  that  morning  as  to  be  inacces- 
sible to  curious  eyes  and  ears,  she  saw  fit 
to  bewail  to  her  fellow-servants  this  fur- 
ther evidence  of  the  decay  of  the  old  feudal 
and  patriarchal  mutual  family  confidences. 
"  Time  was,  thou  remeinberest,  Pepita,  when 
an  affair  of  this  kind  was  openly  discussed 
at  chocolate  with  everybody  present,  and 
before  us  all.  When  Joaquin  Padilla  was 
shot  at  Monterey,  it  was  the  Dona  herself 
who  told  us,  who  read  aloud  the  letters  de- 
scribing it  and  the  bullet-holes  in  his  clothes, 
and  made  it  quite  a  gala-day  —  and  he  was 
a  first-cousin  of  Guitierrez.  And  now,  when 
this  American  goat  of  a  doctor  is  kicked  to 
death  by  a  mule,  the  family  must  shut  them- 


170  MARUJA. 

selves  up,  that  never  a  question  is  asked  or 
answered."  "  Ay,"  responded  Pepita ;  "  and 
as  regards  that,  Sanchez  there  knows  as 
much  as  they  do,  for  it  was  he  that  almost 
saw  the  whole  affair." 

"How?  —  sawest  it?"  inquired  Faquita, 
eagerly. 

"  Why,  was  it  not  he  that  was  bringing 
home  Pereo,  who  had  been  lying  in  one  of 
his  trances  or  visions  —  blessed  St.  Antonio 
preserve  us !  "  said  Pepita,  hastily  crossing 
herself  —  "  on  Koorotora's  grave,  when  the 
Doctor's  mustang  charged  down  upon  them 
like  a  wild  bull,  and  the  Doctor's  foot  half 
out  of  the  stirrups,  and  he  not  yet  fast  in 
his  seat?  And  Pereo  laughs  a  wild  laugh 
and  says :  '  Watch  if  the  coyote  does  not 
drag  yet  at  his  mustang's  heels ; '  and  San- 
chez ran  and  watched  the  Doctor  out  of 
sight,  careering  and  galloping  to  his  death ! 
—  ay,  as  Pereo  prophesied.  For  it  was  only 
half  an  hour  afterwards  that  Sanchez  again 
heard  the  tramp  of  his  hoofs  —  as  if  it  were 


MARUJA.  171 

here  —  and  knowing  it  two  miles  away  — 
thou  understandest,  he  said  to  himself  4  It  is 
over.' " 

The  two  women  shuddered  and  crossed 
themselves. 

"And  what  says  Pereo  of  the  fulfillment 
of  his  prophecy  ?  "  asked  Faquita,  hugging 
herself  in  her  shawl  with  a  certain  titillating 
shrug  of  fascinating  horror. 

"  It  is  even  possible  he  understands  it  not. 
Thou  knowest  how  dazed  and  dumb  he  ever 
is  after  these  visions  —  that  he  comes  from 
them  as  one  from  the  grave,  remembering 
nothing.  He  has  lain  like  a  log  all  the  morn- 
ing." 

"  Ay ;  but  this  news  should  awaken  him, 
if  aught  can.  He  loved  not  this  sneaking 
Doctor.  Let  us  seek  him ;  mayhap,  Sanchez 
may  be  there.  Come  !  The  mistress  lacks 
us  not  just  now ;  the  guests  are  provided  for. 
Come !  " 

She  led  the  way  to  the  eastern  angle  of 
the  easa  communicating  by  a  low  corridor 


172  MARUJA. 

with  the  corral  and  stables.  This  was  the 
old  "  gate-keep  "  or  quarters  of  the  mayor- 
domo,  who,  among  his  functions,  was  sup- 
posed to  exercise  a  supervision  over  the  exits 
and  entrances  of  the  house.  A  large  stew- 
ard's room  or  office,  beyond  it  a  room  of 
general  assembly,  half  guard-room,  half  ser- 
vants' hall,  and  Pereo's  sleeping-room,  consti- 
tuted his  domain.  A  few  peons  were  gath- 
ered in  the  hall  near  the  open  door  of  the 
apartment  where  Pereo  lay. 

Stretched  on  a  low  pallet,  his  face  yellow 
as  wax,  a  light  burning  under  a  crucifix  near 
his  head,  and  a  spray  of  blessed  palm,  popu- 
larly supposed  to  avert  the  attempts  of  evil 
spirits  to  gain  possession  of  his  suspended 
faculties,  Pereo  looked  not  unlike  a  corpse. 
Two  muffled  and  shawled  domestics,  who  sat 
by  his  side,  might  have  been  mourners,  but 
for  their  voluble  and  incessant  chattering. 

"  So  thou  art  here,  Faquita,"  said  a  stout 
virago.  "  It  is  a  wonder  thou  couldst  spare 
time  from  prayers  for  the  repose  of  the 


MARUJA.  173 

American  Doctor's  soul  to  look  after  the 
health  of  thy  superior,  poor  Pereo  !  Is  it, 
then,  true  that  Dona  Maria  said  she  would 
have  naught  more  to  do  with  the  drunken 
brute  of  her  mayordomo?  " 

The  awful  fascination  of  Pereo's  upturned 
face  did  not  prevent  Faquita  from  tossing 
her  head  as  she  replied,  pertly,  that  she  was 
not  there  to  defend  her  mistress  from  lazy 
gossip.  "  Nay,  but  what  said  she  ?  "  asked 
the  other  attendant. 

"  She  said  Pereo  was  to  want  for  noth- 
ing ;  but  at  present  she  could  not  see  him." 

A  murmur  of  indignation  and  sympathy 
passed  through  the  company.  It  was  fol- 
lowed by  a  long  sigh  from  the  insensible 
man.  "  His  lips  move,"  said  Faquita,  still 
fascinated  by  curiosity.  "  Hush !  he  would 
speak." 

"  His  lips  move,  but  his  soul  is  still 
asleep,"  said  Sanchez,  oracularly.  "  Thus 
they  have  moved  since  early  morning,  when 
I  came  to  speak  with  him,  and  found  him 


174  MARUJA. 

• 

lying  here  in  a  fit  upon  the  floor.  He  was 
half  dressed,  thou  seest,  as  if  he  had  risen  to 
go  forth,  and  had  been  struck  down  so  "  — 

"  Hush !  I  tell  thee  he  speaks,"  said  Fa- 
quita. 

The  sick  man  was  faintly  articulating 
through  a  few  tiny  bubbles  that  broke  upon 
his  rigid  lips.  "  He  —  dared  —  me  !  He 
—  said  —  I  was  old  —  too  old." 

"  Who  dared  thee  ?  Who  said  thou  wast 
too  old  ?  "  asked  the  eager  Faquita,  bending 
over  him. 

"  He,  Koorotora  himself !  in  the  shape  of 
a  coyote." 

Faquita  fell  back  with  a  little  giggle,  half 
of  shame,  half  of  awe. 

"  It  is  ever  thus,"  said  Sanchez,  senten- 
tiously ;  "  it  is  what  he  said  last  night,  when 
I  picked  him  up  on  the  mound.  He  will 
sleep  now  —  thou  shalt  see.  He  will  get  no 
further  than  Koorotora  and  the  coyote  — 
and  then  he  will  sleep." 

And  to  the  awe  of  the  group,  and  the  in- 


MARUJA.  175 

creased  respect  for  Sanchez's  wisdom,  Pereo 
seemed  to  fall  again  into  a  lethargic  slumber. 
It  was  late  in  the  evening  when  he  appeared 
to  regain  perfect  "consciousness.  "Ah  — 
what  is  this?'*  he  said,  roughly,  sitting  up 
in  bed,  and  eying  the  watchers  around  him, 
some  of  whom  had  succumbed  to  sleep,  and 
others  were  engaged  in  playing  cards.  "  Ca- 
ramba !  are  ye  mad  ?  Thou,  Sanchez,  here ; 
who  shouldst  be  at  thy  work  in  the  stables ! 
Thou,  Pepita,  is  thy  mistress  asleep  or  dead, 
that  thou  sittest  here?  Blessed  San  Anto- 
nio !  would  ye  drive  me  mad  ?  "  He  lifted 
his  hand  to  his  head,  with  a  dull  movement 
of  pain,  and  attempted  to  rise  from  the  bed. 
"  Softly,  good  Pereo ;  lie  still,"  said  San- 
chez, approaching  him.  "  Thou  hast  been 
ill  —  so  ill.  These,  thy  friends,  have  been 
waiting  only  for  this  moment  to  be  assured 
that  thou  art  better.  For  this  idleness  there 
is  no  blame  —  truly  none.  The  Dona  Maria 
has  said  that  thou  shouldst  lack  no  care  ; 
and,  truly,  since  the  terrible  news  there  has 
been  little  to  do." 


176  MARUJA. 

"  The  terrible  news  ?  "  repeated  Pereo. 

Sanchez  cast  a  meaning  glance  upon  the 
others,  as  if  to  indicate  this  confirmation  of 
his  diagnosis. 

"  Ay,  terrible  news  !  The  Doctor  West 
was  found  this  morning  dead  two  miles  from 
the  casa." 

*'  Dr.  West  dead  !  "  repeated  Pereo,  slowly, 
as  if  endeavoring  to  master  the  real  meaning 
of  the  words.  Then,  seeing  the  vacuity  of 
his  question  reflected  on  the  faces  of  those 
around  him,  he  added,  hurriedly,  with  a 
feeble  smile,  "  O  —  ay  —  dead  !  Yes  !  I 
remember.  And  he  has  been  ill  —  very  ill, 
eh?" 

"  It  was  an  accident.  He  was  thrown 
from  his  horse,  and  so  killed,"  returned 
Sanchez,  gravely. 

"  Killed  —  by  his  horse  !  sayest  thou  ?  " 
said  Pereo,  with  a  sudden  fixed  look  in  his 
eye. 

"  Ay,  good  Pereo.  Dost  thou  not  remem- 
ber when  the  mustang  bolted  with  him  down 


MARUJA.  177 

upon  us  in  the  lane,  and  then  thou  didst  say 
he  would  come  to  evil  with  the  brute  ?  He 
did  —  blessed  San  Antonio  !  —  within  half 
an  hour !  " 

"  How  —  thou  sawest  it  ?  " 

"  Nay  ;  for  the  mustang  was  running  away 
and  I  did  not  follow.  Bueno  !  it  happened 
all  the  same.  The  Alcalde,  Coroner,  who 
knows  all  about  it,  has  said  so  an  hour  ago  ! 
Juan  brought  the  news  from  the  rancho 
where  the  inquest  was.  There  will  be  a 
funeral  the  day  after  to-morrow !  and  so  it 
is  that  some  of  the  family  will  go.  Fancy, 
Pereo,  a  Guitierrez  at  the  funeral  of  the 
Americano  Doctor !  Nay,  I  doubt  not  that 
the  Dona  Maria  will  ask  thee  to  say  a  prayer 
over  his  bier." 

"  Peace,  fool !  and  speak  not  of  thy  lady 
mistress,"  thundered  the  old  man,  sitting 
upright.  "  Begone  to  the  stables.  Dost 
thou  hear  me  ?  Go  !  " 

"  Now,  by  the  Mother  of  Miracles,"  said 
Sanchez,  hastening  from  the  room  as  the 

12 


178  MARUJA. 

gaunt  figure  of  the  old  man  rose,  like  a 
sheeted  spectre,  from  the  bed,  "that  was 
his  old  self  again  !  Blessed  San  Antonio  ! 
Pereo  has  recovered." 

The  next  day  he  was  at  his  usual  duties, 
with  perhaps  a  slight  increase  of  sternness  in 
his  manner.  The  fulfillment  of  his  proph- 
ecy related  by  Sanchez  added  to  the  super- 
stitious reputation  in  which  he  was  held, 
although  Faquita  voiced  the  opinions  of  a 
growing  skeptical  party  in  the  statement 
that  it  was  easy  to  prophesy  the  Doctor's 
accident,  with  the  spectacle  of  the  horse 
actually  running  away  before  the  prophet's 
eyes.  It  was  even  said  that  Dona  Maria's 
aversion  to  Pereo  since  the  accident  arose 
from  a  belief  that  some  assistance  might 
have  been  rendered  by  him.  But  it  was 
pointed  out  by  Sanchez  that  Pereo  had,  a 
few  moments  before,  fallen  under  one  of 
those  singular,  epileptic-like  strokes  to  which 
he  was  subject,  and  not  only  was  unfit,  but 
even  required  the  entire  care  of  Sanchez  at 


MARUJA.  179 

the  time.  He  did  not  attend  the  funeral, 
nor  did  Mrs.  Saltonstall ;  but  the  family 
was  represented  by  Maruja  and  Amita,  ac- 
companied by  one  or  two  dark-faced  cousins, 
Captain  Carroll,  and  Raymond.  A  number 
of  friends  and  business  associates  from  the 
neighboring  towns,  Aladdin  and  a  party 
from  his  house,  the  farm  laborers,  and  a 
crowd  of  working  men  from  his  mills  in  the 
foot-hills,  swelled  the  assemblage  that  met 
in  and  around  the  rude  agricultural  sheds 
and  outhouses  which  formed  the  only  pasto- 
ral habitation  of  the  Rancho  of  San  Anto- 
nio. It  had  been  a  characteristic  injunction 
of  the  deceased  that  he  should  be  buried  in 
the  midst  of  one  of  his  most  prolific  grain 
fields,  as  a  grim  return  to  that  nature  he 
was  impoverishing,  with  neither  mark  nor 
monument  to  indicate  the  spot;  and  that 
even  the  temporary  mound  above  him  should, 
at  the  fitting  season  of  the  year,  be  leveled 
with  the  rest  of  the  field  by  the  obliterating 
plowshares.  A  grave  was  accordingly  dug 


180  MARUJA. 

about  a  quarter  of  a  mile  from  his  office, 
amidst  a  "  volunteer  "  crop  so  dense  that  the 
large  space  mown  around  the  narrow  open- 
ing, to  admit  of  the  presence  of  the  multi- 
tude, seemed  like  a  golden  amphitheatre. 

A  distinguished  clergyman  from  San  Fran- 
cisco officiated.  A  man  of  tact  and  politic 
adaptation,  he  dwelt  upon  the  blameless  life 
of  the  deceased,  on  his  practical  benefit  for 
civilization  in  the  county,  and  even  treated 
his  grim  Pantheism  in  the  selection  of  his 
grave  as  a  formal  recognition  of  the  text, 
"  dust  to  dust."  He  paid  a  not  ungrateful 
compliment  to  the  business  associates  of  the 
deceased,  and,  without  actually  claiming  in 
the  usual  terms  "  a  continuance  of  past  fa- 
vors "  for  their  successors,  managed  to  in- 
terpolate so  strong  a  recommendation  of  the 
late  Doctor's  commercial  projects  as  to  elicit 
from  Aladdin  the  expressive  commendation 
that  his  sermon  was  "as  good  as  five  per 
cent,  in  the  stock." 

Maruja,  who  had  been  standing  near  the 


MARUJA.  181 

carriage,  languidly  silent  and  abstracted 
even  under  the  tender  attentions  of  Carroll, 
suddenly  felt  the  consciousness  of  another 
pair  of  eyes  fixed  upon  her.  Looking  up, 
she  was  surprised  to  find  herself  regarded 
by  the  man  she  had  twice  met,  once  as  a 
tramp  and  once  as  a  wayfarer  at  the  fonda, 
who  had  quietly  joined  a  group  not  far  from, 
her.  At  once  impressed  by  the  idea  that 
this  was  the  first  time  that  he  had  really 
looked  at  her,  she  felt  a  singular  shyness 
creeping  over  her,  until,  to  her  own  aston- 
ishment and  indignation,  she  was  obliged  to 
lower  her  eyes  before  his  gaze.  In  vain  she 
tried  to  lift  them,  with  her  old  supreme 
power  of  fascination.  If  she  had  ever 
blushed,  she  felt  she  would  have  done  so 
now.  She  knew  that  her  face  must  betray 
her  consciousness ;  and  at  last  she  —  Maruja, 
the  self-poised  and  all-sufficient  goddess  — 
actually  turned,  in  half -hysterical  and  girl- 
ish bashfulness,  to  Carroll  for  relief  in  an 
affected  and  exaggerated  absorption  of  his 


182  MARUJA. 

attentions.  She  scarcely  knew  that  the 
clergyman  had  finished  speaking,  when  Ray- 
mond approached  them  softly  from  behind. 
"  Pray  don't  believe,"  he  said,  appealingly, 
"  that  all  the  human  virtues  are  about  to  be 
buried  —  I  should  say  sown  —  in  that  wheat- 
field.  A  few  will  still  survive,  and  creep 
about  above  the  Doctor's  grave.  Listen  to 
a  story  just  told  me,  and  disbelieve  —  if  you 
dare  —  in  human  gratitude.  Do  you  see  that 
picturesque  young  ruffian  over  there  ?  " 

Maruja  did  not  lift  her  eyes.  She  felt 
herself  breathlessly  hanging  on  the  speaker's 
next  words. 

"  Why,  that 's  the  young  man  of  the  fon- 
da,  who  picked  up  your  fan,"  said  Carroll, 
"is n't  it?" 

"  Perhaps,"  said  Maruja",  '  indifferently. 
She  would  have  given  worlds  to  have  been 
able  to  turn  coldly  and  stare  at  him  at  that 
moment  with  the  others,  but  she  dared  not. 
She  contented  herself  with  softly  brushing 
some  dust  from  Captain  Carroll's  arm  with 


MARUJA.  183 

her  fan,  and  a  feminine  suggestion  of  tender 
care  which  thrilled  that  gentleman. 

"  Well,"  continued  Raymond,  "  that  Rob- 
ert Macaire  over  yonder  came  here  some 
three  or  four  clays  ago  as  a  tramp,  in  want 
of  everything  but  honest  labor.  Our  la- 
mented friend  consented  to  parley  with  him, 
which  was  something  remarkable  in  the 
Doctor ;  still  more  remarkable,  he  gave  him 
a  suit  of  clothes,  and,  it  is  said,  some  money, 
and  sent  him  on  his  way.  Now,  more  re- 
markable than  all,  our  friend,  on  hearing  of 
his  benefactor's  death,  actually  tramps  back 
here  to  attend  his  funeral.  The  Doctor 
being  dead,  his  executors  not  of  a  kind  to 
emulate  the  Doctor's  spasmodic  generosity, 
and  there  being  no  chance  of  future  favors, 
the  act  must  be  recorded  as  purely  and  sim- 
ply gratitude.  By  Jove  !  I  don't  know  but 
that  he  is  the  only  one  here  who  can  be 
called  a  real  mourner.  I  'in  here  because 
your  sister  is  here  ;  Carroll  comes  because 
you  do,  and  you  come  because  your  mother 
cannot." 


184  MARUJA. 

"  And  who  tells  you  these  pretty  stories  ?  " 
asked  Maruja,  with  her  face  still  turned  to- 
wards Carroll. 

"  The  foreman,  Harrison,  who,  with  an 
extensive  practical  experience  of  tramps, 
was  struck  with  this  exception  to  the  gen- 
eral rule." 

"  Poor  man ;  one  ought  to  do  something 
for  him,"  said  Amita,  compassionately. 

"  What  !  "  said  Raymond,  with  affected 
terror,  "  and  spoil  this  perfect  story  ?  Never ! 
If  I  should  offer  him  ten  dollars,  I  'd  expect 
him  to  kick  me  ;  if  he  took  it,  I  'd  expect  to 
kick  him" 

"He  is  not  so  bad-looking,  is  he,  Maru- 
ja?" asked  Amita  of  her  sister.  But  Ma- 
ruja had  already  moved  a  few  paces  off  with 
Carroll,  and  seemed  to  be  lis'tening  to  him 
only.  Raymond  smiled  at  the  pretty  per- 
plexity of  Amita's  eyebrows  over  this  pro- 
nounced indiscretion. 

"  Don't  mind  them,"  he  whispered  ;  "  you 
really  cannot  expect  to  duena  your  elder 


MARUJA.  185 

sister.  Tell  me,  would  you  actually  like  me 
to  see  if  I  could  assist  the  virtuous  tramp  ? 
You  have  only  to  speak."  But  Amita's  in- 
terest appeared  to  be  so  completely  appeased 
with  Raymond's  simple  offer  that  she  only 
smiled,  blushed,  and  said  "  No." 

Maruja's  quick  ears  had  taken  in  every 
word  of  these  asides,  and  for  an  instant  she 
hated  her  sister  for  her  aimless  declination 
of  Raymond's  proposal.  But  becoming 
conscious  —  under  her  eyelids  —  that  the 
stranger  was  moving  away  with  the  dis- 
persing crowd,  she  rejoined  Amita  with  her 
usual  manner.  The  others  had  re  entered 
the  carriage,  but  Maruja  took  it  into  her 
head  to  proceed  on  foot  to  the  rude  building 
whence  the  mourners  had  issued.  The  fore- 
man, Harrison,  flushed  and  startled  by  this 
apparition  of  inaccessible  beauty  at  his 
threshold,  came  eagerly  forward.  "  I  shall 
not  trouble  you  now,  Mr.  Har-r-r-rison,"  she 
said,  with  a  polite  exaggeration  of  the  con- 
sonants ;  "  but  some  day  I  shall  ride  over 


186  MARUJA. 

here,  and  ask  you  to  show  me  your  wonder- 
ful machines." 

She  smiled,  and  turned  back  to  seek  her 
carriage.  But  before  she  had  gone  many 
yards  she  found  that  she  had  completely 
lost  it  in  the  intervening  billows  of  grain. 
She  stopped,  with  an  impatient  little  Spanish 
ejaculation.  The  next  moment  the  stalks 
of  wheat  parted  before  her  and  a  figure 
emerged.  It  was  the  stranger. 

She  fell  back  a  step  in  utter  helplessness. 

He,  on  his  side,  retreated  again  into  the 
wheat,  holding  it  back  with  extended  arms 
to  let  her  pass.  As  she  moved  forward 
mechanically,  without  a  word  he  moved 
backward,  making  a  path  for  her  until  she 
was  able  to  discern  the  coachman's  whip 
above  the  bending  heads  of  'the  grain  just 
beyond  her.  He  stopped  here  and  drew  to 
one  side,  his  arms  still  extended,  to  give  her 
free  passage.  She  tried  to  speak,  but  could 
only  bow  her  head,  and  slipped  by  him  with 
a  strange  feeling  —  suggested  by  his  attitude 


MARUJA.  187 

—  that  she  was  evading  his  embrace.  But 
the  next  moment  his  arms  were  lowered,  the 
grain  closed  around  him,  and  he  was  lost  to 
her  view.  She  reached  the  carriage  almost 
unperceived  by  the  inmates,  and  pounced 
upon  her  sister  with  a  laugh. 

"  Blessed  Virgin  !  "  said  Amita,  "  where 
did  you  come  from  ?  " 

"  From  there  !  "  said  Maruja,  with  a 
slight  nervous  shiver,  pointing  to  the  clus- 
tering grain. 

"  We  were  afraid  you  were  lost." 

"  So  was  I,"  said  Maruja,  raising  her  pret- 
ty lashes  heavenwards,  as  she  drew  a  shawl 
tightly  round  her  shoulders. 

"  Has  anything  happened  ?  You  look 
strange,"  said  Carroll,  drawing  closer  to  her. 

Her  eyes  were  sparkling,  but  she  was  very 
pale. 

"  Nothing,  nothing !  "  she  said,  hastily, 
glancing  at  the  grain  again. 

"  If  it  were  not  that  the  haste  would  have 
been  absolutely  indecent,  I  should  say  that 


188  MARUJA. 

the  late  Doctor  had  made  you  a  ghostly 
visit,"  said  Raymond,  looking  at  her  curi- 
ously. 

"  He  would  have  been  polite  enough  not 
to  have  commented  on  my  looks,"  said  Ma- 
ruja.  "  Am  I  really  such  a  fright  ?  " 

Carroll  thought  he  had  never  seen  her  so 
beautiful.  Her  eyelids  were  quivering  over 
their  fires  as  if  they  had  been  brushed  by 
the  passing  wing  of  a  strong  passion. 

4 'What  are  you  thinking  of?"  said  Car- 
roll, as  they  drove  on. 

She  was  thinking  that  the  stranger  had 
looked  at  her  admiringly,  and  that  his  eyes 
were  blue.  But  she  looked  quietly  into  her 
lover's  face,  and  said,  sweetly,  "Nothing,  I 
fear,  that  would  interest  you !  " 


CHAPTER  IX. 

THE  news  of  the  assignment  of  Dr.  West's 
property  to  Mrs.  Saltonstall  was  followed  by 
the  still  more  astonishing  discovery  that  the 
Doctor's  will  further  bequeathed  to  her  his 
entire  property,  after  payment  of  his  debts 
and  liabilities.  It  was  given  in  recognition 
of  her  talents  and  business  integrity  during 
their  late  association,  and  as  an  evidence  of 
the  confidence  and  "undying  affection"  of 
the  testator.  Nevertheless,  after  the  first 
surprise,  the  fact  was  accepted  by  the  com- 
munity as  both  natural  and  proper  under 
that  singular  instinct  of  humanity  which  ac- 
quiesces without  scruple  in  the  union  of  two 
large  fortunes,  but  sharply  questions  the 
conjunction  of  poverty  and  affluence,  and 
looks  only  for  interested  motives  where  there 
is  disparity  of  wealth.  Had  Mrs.  Salton- 


190  MARUJA. 

stall  been  a  poor  widow  instead  of  a  rich 
one  ;  had  she  been  the  Doctor's  housekeeper 
instead  of  his  business  friend,  the  bequest 
would  have  been  strongly  criticised  —  if  not 
legally  tested.  But  this  combination,  which 
placed  the  entire  valley  of  San  Antonio  in 
the  control  of  a  single  individual,  appeared 
to  be  perfectly  legitimate.  More  than  that, 
some  vague  rumor  of  the  Doctor's  past 
and  his  early  entanglements  only  seemed  to 
make  this  eminently  practical  disposition  of 
his  property  the  more  respectable,  and  con- 
doned for  any  moral  irregularities  of  his 
youth. 

The  effect  upon  the  collateral  branches  of 
the  Guitierrez  family  and  the  servants  and 
retainers  was  even  more  impressive.  For 
once,  it  seemed  that  the  fortunes  and  tradi- 
tions of  the  family  were  changed ;  the  fe- 
male Guitierrez,  instead  of  impoverishing 
the  property,  had  augmented  it ;  the  foreign- 
er and  intruder  had  been  despoiled ;  the  fate 
of  La  Mision  Perdida  had  been  changed ; 


MARUJA.  191 

the  curse  of  Koorotora  had  proved  a  bless- 
ing ;  his  prophet  and  descendant,  Pereo,  the 
mayordomo,  moved  in  an  atmosphere  of  su- 
perstitious adulation  and  respect  among  the 
domestics  and  common  people.  This  recog- 
nition of  his  power  he  received  at  times  with 
a  certain  exaltation  of  grandiloquent  pride 
beyond  the  conception  of  any  but  a  Spanish 
servant,  and  at  times  with  a  certain  dull, 
pained  vacancy  of  perception  and  an  expres- 
sion of  frightened  bewilderment  which  also 
went  far  to  establish  his  reputation  as  an 
unconscious  seer  and  thaumaturgist.  "  Thou 
seest,"  said  Sanchez  to  the  partly  skeptical 
Faquita,  "he  does  not  know  more  than  an 
infant  what  is  his  power.  That  is  the  proof 
of  it."  The  Dona  Maria  alone  did  not  par- 
ticipate in  this  appreciation  of  Pereo,  and 
when  it  was  proposed  that  a  feast  or  cele- 
bration of  rejoicing  should  be  given  under 
the  old  pear-tree  by  the  Indian's  mound,  her 
indignation  was  long  remembered  by  those 
that  witnessed  it.  "  It  is  not  enough  that 


192  MARUJA. 

we  have  been  made  ridiculous  in  the  past," 
she  said  to  Maruja,  "  by  the  interference  of 
this  solemn  fool,  but  that  the  memory  of  our 
friend  is  to  be  insulted  by  his  generosity  be- 
ing made  into  a  triumph  of  Pereo's  idiotic 
ancestor.  One  would  have  thought  those 
coyotes  and  Koorotora's  bones  had  been 
buried  with  the  cruel  gossip  of  your  rela- 
tions "  —  (it  had  been  the  recent  habit  of 
Dona  Maria  to  allude  to  "the  family"  as 
being  particularly  related  to  Maruja  alone) 
—  "  over  my  poor  friend.  Let  him  beware 
that  his  ancestor's  mound  is  not  uprooted 
with  the  pear-tree,  and  his  heathenish  temple 
destroyed.  If,  as  the  engineer  says,  a  branch 
of  the  new  railroad  can  be  established  for  La 
Mision  Perdida,  I  agree  with  him  that  it  can 
better  pass  at  that  point  with  Jess  sacrifice  to 
the  domain.  It  is  the  one  uncultivated  part 
of  the  park,  and  lies  at  the  proper  angle." 

"  You- surely  would  not  consent  to  this,  my 
mother?"  said  Maruja,  with  a  sudden  im- 
pression of  a  newly  found  force  in  her  moth- 
er's character. 


MARUJA.  193 

"  Why  not,  child?  "  said  the  relict  of  Mr. 
Saltonstall  and  the  mourner  of  Dr.  West, 
coldly.  "  I  admit  it  was  discreet  of  thee  in 
old  times  to  have  thy  sentimental  passages 
there  with  caballeros  who,  like  the  guests  of 
the  hidalgo  that  kept  a  skeleton  at  his  feast, 
were  reminded  of  the  mutability  of  their 
hopes  by  Koorotora's  bones  and  the  legend. 
But  with  the  explosion  of  this  idea  of  a  pri- 
mal curse,  like  Eve's,  on  the  property," 
added  the  Dona  Maria,  with  a  slight  bitter- 
ness, "thou  mayest  have  thy  citas  —  else- 
where. Thou  canst  scarcely  keep  this  Cap- 
tain Carroll  any  longer  at  a  distance  by 
rattling  those  bones  of  Koorotora  in  his 
face.  And  of  a  truth,  child,  since  the  affair 
of  the  letters,  and  his  discreet  and  honorable 
conduct  since,  I  see  not  why  thou  shouldst. 
He  has  thy  mother's  reputation  in  his  - 
hands." 

"He  is  a  gentleman,  my  mother,"  said 
Maruja,  quietly. 

"And  they  are  scarce,  child,  and  should 

13 


194  MARUJA. 

be  rewarded  and  preserved.  That  is  what  I 
meant,  silly  one ;  this  Captain  is  not  rich  — 
but  then,  thou  hast  enough  for  both." 

"  But  it  was  Amita  that  first  brought  him 
here,"  said  Maruja,  looking  down  with  an 
air  of  embarrassed  thoughtfulness,  which 
Dona  Maria  chose  to  instantly  accept  as  ex- 
aggerated coyness. 

"  Do  not  think  to  deceive  me  or  thyself, 
child,  with  this  folly.  Thou  art  old  enough 
to  know  a  man's  mind,  if  not  thine  own. 
Besides,  I  do  not  know  that  I  shall  object  to 
her  liking  for  Raymond.  He  is  very  clever, 
and  would  be  a  relief  to  some  of  thy  rela- 
tives. He  would  be  invaluable  to  us  in  the 
emergencies  that  may  grow  out  of  these  me- 
chanical affairs  that  I  do  not  understand  — 
such  as  the  mill  and  the  railroad." 

"And  you  propose  to  take  a  few  husbands 
as  partners  in  the  business  ?  "  said  Maruja, 
who  had  recovered  her  spirits.  "  I  warn 
you  that  Captain  Carroll  is  as  stupid  as  a 
gentleman  could  be.  I  wonder  that  he  has 


MARUJA.  195 

not  blundered  in  other  things  as  badly  as  he 
has  in  preferring  me  to  Amita.  He  con- 
fided to  me  only  last  night,  that  he  had 
picked  up  a  pocket-book  belonging  to  the 
Doctor  and  given  it  to  Aladdin,  without  a 
witness  or  receipt,  and  evidently  of  his  own 
accord." 

"A  pocket-book  of  the  Doctor's?"  re- 
peated Dona  Maria. 

"  Ay ;  but  it  contained  nothing  of  thine," 
said  Maruja.  "  The  poor  child  had  sense 
enough  to  think  of  that.  But  I  am  in  no 
hurry  to  ask  your  consent  and  your  blessing 
yet,  little  mother.  I  could  even  bear  that 
Amita  should  precede  me  to  the  altar,  if  the 
exigencies  of  thy  '  business  '  require  it.  It 
might  also  secure  Captain  Carroll  for  me. 
Nay,  look  not  at  me  in  that  cheapening,  com- 
mercial way  —  with  compound  interest  in 
thine  eyes.  I  am  not  so  poor  an  investment, 
truly,  of  thy  original  capital." 

"Thou  art  thy  father's  child,"  said  her 
mother,  suddenly  kissing  her  ;  "  and  that  is 


196  MARUJA. 

saying  enough,  the  Blessed  Virgin  knows. 
Go  now,"  she  continued,  gently  pushing  her 
from  the  room,  "and  send  Amita  hither." 
She  watched  the  disappearance  of  Maruja's 
slightly  rebellious  shoulders,  and  added  to 
herself,  "  And  this  is  the  child  that  Amita 
really  believes  is  pining  with  lovesickness 
for  Carroll,  so  that  she  can  neither  sleep  nor 
eat.  This  is  the  girl  that  Faquita  would 
have  me  think  hath  no  longer  any  heart  in 
her  dress  or  in  her  finery  !  Soul  of  Joseph 
Saltonstall !  "  ejaculated  the  widow,  lifting 
her  shoulders  and  her  eyes  together,  "  thou 
hast  much  to  account  for." 

Two  weeks  later  she  again  astonished  her 
daughter.  "Why  dost  thou  not  join  the 
party  that  drives  over  to  see  the  wonders  of 
Aladdin's  Palace  to-day?  It  would  seem 
more  proper  that  thou  shouldst  accompany 
thy  guests  than  Raymond  and  Amita." 

"  I  have  never  entered  his  doors  since  the 
day  he  was  disrespectful  to  my  mother's 
daughter,"  said  Maruja,  in  surprise. 


MARUJA.  197 

"  Disrespectful !  "  repeated  Dona  Maria, 
impatiently.  "  Thy  father's  daughter  ought 
to  know  that  such  as  he  may  be  ignorant  and 
vulgar,  but  cannot  be  disrespectful  to  her. 
And  there  are  offenses,  child,  it  is  much 
more  crushing  to  forget  than  to  remember. 
As  long  as  he  has  not  the  presumption  to 
apologize,  I  see  no  reason  why  thou  mayst 
not  go.  He  has  not  been  here  since  that 
affair  of  the  letters.  I  shall  not  permit  him 
to  be  uncivil  over  that  —  dost  thou  under- 
stand? He  is  of  use  to  me  in  business. 
Thou  mayst  take  Carroll  with  thee ;  he  will 
understand  that." 

"  But  Carroll  will  not  go,"  said  Maruja. 
"  He  will  not  say  what  passed  between  them, 
but  I  suspect  they  quarreled." 

"All  the  better,  then,  that  thou  goest 
alone.  He  need  not  be  reminded  of  it. 
Fear  not  but  that  he  will  be  only  too  proud 
of  thy  visit  to  think  of  aught  else." 

Maruja,  who  seemed  relieved  at  this  pros- 
pect of  being  unaccompanied  by  Captain 


198  MARUJA. 

Carroll,    shrugged    her    shoulders   and    as- 
sented. 

When  the  party  that  afternoon  drove 
into  the  court-yard  of  Aladdin's  Palace,  the 
announcement  that  its  hospitable  proprietor 
was  absent,  and  would  not  return  until  din- 
ner, did  not  abate  either  their  pleasure  or 
their  curiosity.  As  already  intimated  to  the 
reader,  Mr.  Prince's  functions  as  host  were 
characteristically  irregular ;  and  the  ser- 
vant's suggestion,  that  Mr.  Prince's  private 
secretary  would  attend  to  do  the  honors, 
created  little  interest,  and  was  laughingly 
waived  by  Maruja.  "There  really  is  not 
the  slightest  necessity  to  trouble  the  gentle- 
man," she  said,  politely.  "  I  know  the  house 
thoroughly,  and  I  think  I  have  shown  it 
once  or  twice  before  for  your  master.  In- 
deed," she  added,  turning  to  her  party,  "  I 
have  been  already  complimented  on  my  skill 
as  a  cicerone."  After  a  pause,  she  con- 
tinued, with  a  slight  exaggeration  of  action 
and  in  her  deepest  contralto,  "  Ahem,  ladies 


MARUJA.  199 

and  gentlemen,  the  hall  and  court  in  which 
we  are  now  standing  is  a  perfect  copy  of  the 
Court  of  Lions  at  the  Alhambra,  and  was 
finished  in  fourteen  days  in  white  pine,  gold, 
and  plaster,  at  a  cost  of  ten  thousand  dollars. 
A  photograph  of  the  original  structure  hangs 
on  the  wall :  you  will  observe,  ladies  and 
gentlemen,  that  the  reproduction  is  perfect. 
The  Alhambra  is  in  Granada,  a  province  of 
Spain,  which  is  said  in  some  respects  to  re- 
semble California,  where  you  have  probably 
observed  the  Spanish  language  is  still  spoken 
by  the  old  settlers.  We  now  cross  the 
stable-yard  on  a  bridge  which  is  a  fac-simile 
in  appearance  and  dimensions  of  the  Bridge 
of  Sighs  at  Venice,  connecting  the  Doge's 
Palace  with  the  State  Prison.  Here,  on  the 
contrary,  instead  of  being  ushered  into  a 
dreary  dungeon,  as  in  the  great  original,  a 
fresh  surprise  awaits  us.  Allow  me,  ladies 
and  gentlemen,  to  precede  you  for  the  sur- 
prise. We  open  a  door  thus  —  and  — 
presto ! "  — 


200  MARUJA. 

She  stopped,  speechless,  on  the  threshold; 
the  fan  fell  from  her  gesticulating  hand. 

In  the  centre  of  a  brilliantly -lit  conserva- 
tory, with  golden  columns,  a  young  man  was 
standing.  As  her  fan  dropped  on  the  tes- 
sellated pavement,  he  came  forward,  picked 
it  up,  and  put  it  in  her  rigid  and  mechanical 
fingers.  The  party,  who  had  applauded  her 
apparently  artistic  climax,  laughingly  pushed 
by  her  into  the  conservatory,  without  notic- 
ing her  agitation. 

It  was  the  same  face  and  figure  she  re- 
membered as  last  standing  before  her,  hold- 
ing back  the  crowding  grain  in  the  San 
Antonio  field.  But  here  he  was  appareled 
and  appointed  like  a  gentleman,  and  even 
seemed  to  be  superior  to  the  garish  glitter 
of  his  new  surroundings. 

"  I  believe  I  have  the  pleasure  of  speak- 
ing to  Miss  Saltonstall,"  he  said,  with  the 
faintest  suggestion  of  his  former  manner  in 
his  half-resentful  sidelong  glance.  "  I  hear 
that  you  offered  to  dispense  with  my  ser- 


MARUJA.  201 

vices,  but  I  knew  that  Mr.  Prince  would 
scarcely  be  satisfied  if  I  did  not  urge  it  once 
more  upon  you  in  person.  I  am  his  private 
secretary." 

At  the  same  moment,  Amita  and  Ray- 
mond, attracted  by  the  conversation,  turned 
towards  him.  Their  recognition  of  the  man 
they  had  seen  at  Dr.  West's  was  equally  dis- 
tinct. The  silence  became  embarrassing. 
Two  pretty  girls  of  the  party  pressed  to 
Amita's  side,  with  half -audible  whispers. 
"What  is  it?"  "Who's  your  handsome 
and  wicked-looking  friend?"  "Is  this  the 
surprise  ?  " 

At  the  sound  of  their  voices,  Maruja  re- 
covered herself  coldly.  "  Ladies,"  she  said, 
with  a  slight  wave  of  her  fan,  "  this  is  Mr. 
Prince's  private  secretary.  I  believe  it  is 
hardly  fair  to  take  up  his  valuable  time. 
Allow  me  to  thank  you,  sir,  FOR  PICKING  UP 

MY  FAN  !  "  % 

With  a  single  subtle  flash  of  the  eye  she 
swept  by  him,  taking  her  companions  to  the 


202  MARUJA. 

other  end  of  the  conservatory.  When  she 
turned,  he  was  gone. 

"  This  was  certainly  an  unexpected  cli- 
max," said  Raymond,  mischievously.  "  Did 
you  really  arrange  it  beforehand  ?  We 
leave  a  picturesque  tramp  at  the  edge  of  a 
grave  ;  we  pass  over  six  weeks  and  a  Bridge 
of  Sighs,  and  hey,  presto  !  we  find  a  private 
secretary  in  a  conservatory !  This  is  quite 
the  regular  Aladdin  business." 

"  You  may  laugh,"  said  Maruja,  who  had 
recovered  her  spirits,  "  but  if  you  were  really 
clever  you  'd  find  out  what  it  all  means. 
Don't  you  see  that  Amita  is  dying  of  curi- 
osity ?  " 

"  Let  us  fly  at  once  and  discover  the  se- 
cret, then,"  said  Raymond,  slipping  Amita's 
arm  through  his.  "  We  will ,  consult  the 
oracle  in  the  stables.  Come." 

The  others  followed,  leaving  Maruja  for 
an  instant  alon%.  She  was  about  to  rejoin 
them  when  she  heard  footsteps  in  the  pas- 
sage they  had  just  crossed,  and  then  per- 


MARUJA.  203 

ceived  that  the  young  stranger  had  merely 
withdrawn  to  allow  the  party  to  precede  him 
before  he  returned  to  the  other  building 
through  the  conservatory,  which  he  was  just 
entering.  In  turning  quickly  to  escape,  the 
black  lace  of  her  over  -  skirt  caught  in 
the  spines  of  a  snaky-looking  cactus.  She 
stopped  to  disengage  herself  with  feverish 
haste  in  vain.  She  was  about  to  sacrifice  the 
delicate  material,  in  her  impatience,  when 
the  young  man  stepped  quietly  to  her  side. 

"Allow  me.  Perhaps  I  have  more  pa- 
tience, even  if  I  have  less  time,"  he  said, 
stooping  down.  Their  ungloved  hands 
touched.  Maruja  stopped  in  her  efforts 
and  stood  up.  He  continued  until  he  had 
freed  the  luckless  flounce,  conscious  of  the 
soft  fire  of  her  eyes  on  his  head  and  neck. 

"  There,"  he  said,  rising,  and  encounter- 
ing her  glance.  As  she  did  not  speak,  he 
continued  :  "  You  are  thinking,  Miss  Sal- 
tonstall,  that  you  have  seen  me  before,  are 
you  not  ?  Well  —  you  have  ;  I  asked  you 


204  MARUJA. 

the  road  to  San  Jos£  one  morning  when  I 
was  tramping  by  your  hedge." 

"  And  as  you  probably  were  looking  for 
something  better  —  which  you  seem  to  have 
found  —  you  did  n't  care  to  listen  to  my 
directions,"  said  Maruja,  quickly. 

"  I  found  a  man  —  almost  the  only  one 
who  ever  offered  me  a  gratuitous  kindness 

—  at  whose  grave  I  afterwards  met  you.     I 
found  another  man  who  befriended  me  here 

—  where  I  meet  you  again." 

She  was  beginning  to  be  hysterically  ner- 
vous lest  any  one  should  return  and  find 
them  together.  She  was  conscious  of  a  tin- 
gling of  vague  shame.  Yet  she  lingered.  The 
strange  fascination  of  his  half -savage  melan- 
choly, and  a  reproachfulness  that  seemed  to 
arraign  her,  with  the  rest  of  the  world,  at 
the  bar  of  his  vague  resentment,  held  the 
delicate  fibres  of  her  sensitive  being  as  cru- 
elly and  relentlessly  as  the  thorns  of  the 
cactus  had  gripped  her  silken  lace.  Without 
knowing  what  she  was  saying,  she  stammered 


MARUJA.  205 

that  she  "  was  glad  he  connected  her  with 
his  better  fortune,"  and  began  to  move  away. 
He  noticed  it  with  his  sidelong  lids,  and 
added,  with  a  slight  bitterness  :  — 

"  I  don't  think  I  should  have  intruded 
here  again,  but  1  thought  you  had  gone.  But 
I  —  I  —  am  afraid  you  have  not  seen  the 
last  of  me.  It  was  the  intention  of  my  em- 
ployer, Mr.  Prince,  to  introduce  me  to  you 
and  your  mother.  I  suppose  he  considers  it 
part  of  my  duties  here.  I  must  warn  you 
that,  if  you  are  here  when  he  returns,  he 
will  insist  upon  it,  and  upon  your  meeting 
me  with  these  ladies  at  dinner." 

"  Perhaps  so  —  he  is  my  mother's  friend," 
said  Maruja  ;  "  but  you  have  the  advantage 
of  us  —  you  can  always  take  to  the  road,  you 
know." 

The  smile  with  which  she  had  intended  to 
accompany  this  speech  did  not  come  as  read- 
ily in  execution  as  it  had  in  conception,  and 
she  would  have  given  worlds  to  have  recalled 
her  words.  But  he  said,  "  That 's  so," 


206  MARTHA. 

quietly,  and  turned  away,  as  if  to  give  her 
an  opportunity  to  escape.  She  moved  hesi- 
tatingly towards  the  passage  and  stopped. 
The  sound  of  the  returning  voices  gave  her 
a  sudden  courage. 

"Mr."  — 

"  Guest,"  said  the  young  man. 

"  If  we  do  conclude  to  stay  to  dinner,  as 
Mr.  Prince  has  said  nothing  of  introducing 
you  to  my  sister,  you  must  let  me  have  that 
pleasure." 

He  lifted  his  eyes  to  hers  with  a  sudden 
flush.  But  she  had  fled. 

She  reached  her  party,  displaying  her  torn 
flounce  as  the  cause  of  her  delay,  and  there 
was  a  slight  quickness  in  her  breathing  and 
her  speech  which  was  attributed  to  the  same 
grave  reason.  "  But,  only  listen,"  said 
Amita,  "  we  've  got  it  all  out  of  the  butler 
and  the  grooms.  It 's  such  a  romantic 
story  I  " 

"  What  is  ?  "  said  Maruja,  suddenly. 

"  Why,  the  private  tramp's." 


MARUJA.  207 

"The  peripatetic  secretary,"  suggested 
Raymond. 

"  Yes,"  continued  Amita,  "  Mr.  Prince 
was  so  struck  with  his  gratitude  to  the  old 
Doctor  that  he  hunted  him  up  in  San  Jose, 
and  brought  him  here.  Since  then  Prince 
has  been  so  interested  in  him  —  it  appears 
he  was  somebody  in  the  States,  or  has  rich 
relations  —  that  he  has  been  telegraphing 
and  making  all  sorts  of  inquiries  about  him, 
and  has  even  sent  out  his  own  lawyer  to 
hunt  up  everything  about  him.  Are  you 
listening  ?  " 

"Yes." 

"  You  seem  abstracted." 

"  I  am  hungry." 

"  Why  not  dine  here  ;  it 's  an  hour  earlier 
than  at  home.  Aladdin  would  fall  at  your 
feet  for  the  honor.  Do !  " 

Maruja  looked  at  them  with  innocent 
vagueness,  as  if  the  possibility  were  just  be- 
ginning to  dawn  upon  her. 

"  And  Clara  Wilson  is  just  dying  to  see 


210  MARUJA. 

a  bank  of  yellow  roses  at  her  sister  and  Ray- 
mond, and  was  timidly  conscious  of  the  eyes 
of  young  Guest,  who  was  sealed  at  the  other 
end  of  the  table,  between  the  two  Misses 
Wilson.  With  a  strange  haunting  of  his 
appearance  on  the  day  she  first  met  him,  she 
stole  glances  of  half-frightened  curiosity  at 
him  while  he  was  eating,  and  was  relieved 
to  find  that  he  used  his  knife  and  fork  like 
the  others,  and  that  his  appetite  was  far 
from  voracious.  It  was  his  employer  who 
was  the  first  to  recall  the  experiences  of  his 
past  life,  with  a  certain  enthusiasm  and  the 
air  of  a  host  anxious  to  contribute  to  the 
entertainment  of  his  guests.  "  You  'd  hardly 
believe,  Miss  Saltonstall,  that  that  young 
gentleman  over  there  walked  across  the  Con- 
tinent —  and  two  thousand  odd  miles,  was  n't 
it  ?  —  all  alone,  and  with  not  much  more  in 
the  way  of  traps  than  he 's  got  on  now.  Tell 
'em,  Harry,  how  the  Apaches  nearly  gobbled 
you  up,  and  then  let  you  go  because  they 
thought  you  as  good  an  Injun  as  any  one  of 


MARUJA.  211 

them,  and  how  you  lived  a  week  in  the  des- 
ert on  two  biscuits  as  big  as  that."  A 
chorus  of  entreaty  and  delighted  anticipation 
followed  the  suggestion.  The  old  expression 
of  being  at  bay  returned  for  an  instant  to 
Guest's  face,  but,  lifting  his  eyes,  he  caught 
a  look  of  almost  sympathetic  anxiety  from 
Maruja's,  who  had  not  spoken. 

"  It  became  necessary  for  me,  some  time 
ago,"  said  Guest,  half  explanatorily,  to  Ma- 
ruja,  "to  be  rather  explicit  in  the  details 
of  my  journey  here,  and  I  told  Mr.  Prince 
some  things  which  he  seems  to  think  inter- 
esting to  others.  That  is  all.  To  save  my 
life  on  one  occasion,  I  was  obliged  to  show 
myself  as  good  as  an  Indian,  in  his  own  way, 
and  I  lived  among  them  and  traveled  with 
them  for  two  weeks.  I  have  been  hungry, 
as  I  suppose  others  have  on  like  occasions, 
but  nothing  more." 

Nevertheless,  in  spite  of  his  evident  reti- 
cence, he  was  obliged  to  give  way  to  their 
entreaties,  and,  with  a  certain  grim  and  un- 


210  MARUJA. 

a  bank  of  yellow  roses  at  her  sister  and  Ray- 
mond, and  was  timidly  conscious  of  the  eyes 
of  young  Guest,  who  was  sealed  at  the  other 
end  of  the  table,  between  the  two  Misses 
Wilson.  With  a  strange  haunting  of  his 
appearance  on  the  day  she  first  met  him,  she 
stole  glances  of  half-frightened  curiosity  at 
him  while  he  was  eating,  and  was  relieved 
to  find  that  he  used  his  knife  and  fork  like 
the  others,  and  that  his  appetite  was  far 
from  voracious.  It  was  his  employer  who 
was  the  first  to  recall  the  experiences  of  his 
past  life,  with  a  certain  enthusiasm  and  the 
air  of  a  host  anxious  to  contribute  to  the 
entertainment  of  his  guests.  "  You  'd  hardly 
believe,  Miss  Saltonstall,  that  that  young 
gentleman  over  there  walked  across  the  Con- 
tinent —  and  two  thousand  odd  miles,  was  n't 
it  ?  —  all  alone,  and  with  not  much  more  in 
the  way  of  traps  than  he 's  got  on  now.  Tell 
'em,  Harry,  how  the  Apaches  nearly  gobbled 
you  up,  and  then  let  you  go  because  they 
thought  you  as  good  an  Injun  as  any  one  of 


MARUJA.  211 

them,  and  how  you  lived  a  week  in  the  des- 
ert on  two  biscuits  as  big  as  that."  A 
chorus  of  entreaty  and  delighted  anticipation 
followed  the  suggestion.  The  old  expression 
of  being  at  bay  returned  for  an  instant  to 
Guest's  face,  but,  lifting  his  eyes,  he  caught 
a  look  of  almost  sympathetic  anxiety  from 
Maruja's,  who  had  not  spoken. 

"  It  became  necessary  for  me,  some  time 
ago,"  said  Guest,  half  explanatorily,  to  Ma- 
ruja,  "to  be  rather  explicit  in  the  details 
of  my  journey  here,  and  I  told  Mr.  Prince 
some  things  which  he  seems  to  think  inter- 
esting to  others.  That  is  all.  To  save  my 
life  on  one  occasion,  I  was  obliged  to  show 
myself  as  good  as  an  Indian,  in  his  own  way, 
and  I  lived  among  them  and  traveled  with 
them  for  two  weeks.  I  have  been  hungry, 
as  I  suppose  others  have  on  like  occasions, 
but  nothing  more." 

Nevertheless,  in  spite  of  his  evident  reti- 
cence, he  was  obliged  to  give  way  to  their 
entreaties,  and,  with  a  certain  grim  and  un- 


212  MARUJA. 

compromising  truthfulness  of  statement,  re- 
counted some  episodes  of  his  journey.  It 
was  none  the  less  thrilling  that  he  did  it  re- 
luctantly, and  in  much  the  same  manner  as 
he  had  answered  his  father's  questions,  and 
as  he  had  probably  responded  to  the  later 
cross-examination  of  Mr.  Prince.  He  did 
not  tell  it  emotionally,  but  rather  with  the 
dogged  air  of  one  who  had  been  subjected  to 
a  personal  grievance  for  which  he  neither 
asked  nor  expected  sympathy.  When  he 
did  not  raise  his  eyes  to  Maruja's,  he  kept 
them  fixed  on  his  plate. 

"  Well,"  said  Prince,  when  a  long-drawn 
sigh  of  suspended  emotion  among  the  guests 
testified  to  his  powers  as  a  caterer  to  their 
amusement,  "  what  do  you  say  to  some  music 
with  our  coffee  to  follow  the  story  ?  " 

"  It  's  more  like  a  play,"  said  Amita  to 
Raymond.  "  What  a  pity  Captain  Carroll, 
who  knows  all  about  Indians,  is  n't  here  to 
have  enjoyed  it.  But  I  suppose  Maruja,  who 
has  n't  lost  a  word,  will  tell  it  to  him." 


MARUJA.  213 

"I  don't  think  she  will,"  said  Raymond, 
dryly,  glancing  at  Maruja,  who,  lost  in  some 
intricate  pattern  of  her  Chinese  plate,  was 
apparently  unconscious  that  her  host  was 
waiting  her  signal  to  withdraw.  At  last  she 
raised  her  head,  and  said,  gently  but  audi- 
bly, to  the  waiting  Prince,  — 

"  It  is  positively  a  newer  pattern  ;  the  old 
one  had  not  that  delicate  straw  line  in  the 
arabesque.  You  must  have  had  it  made  for 
you." 

"  I  did,"  said  the  gratified  Prince,  taking 
up  the  plate.  "  What  eyes  you  have,  Miss 
Saltonstall.  They  see  everything." 

"  Except  that  I  'm  keeping  you  all  wait- 
ing," she  returned,  with  a  smile,  letting  the 
eyes  in  question  fall  with  a  half-parting  sal- 
utation on  Guest  as  she  rose.  It  was  the 
first  exchange  of  a  common  instinct  between 
them,  and  left  them  as  conscious  as  if  they 
had  pressed  hands. 

The  music  gave  an  opportunity  for  some 
desultory  conversation,  in  which  Mr.  Prince 


214  MARUJA. 

and  his  young  friend  received  an  invitation 
from  Maruja  to  visit  La  Mision,  and  the 
party,  by  common  consent,  turned  into  the 
conservatory,  where  the  genial  host  begged 
them  each  to  select  a  flower  from  a  few 
especially  rare  exotics.  When  Maruja  re- 
ceived hers,  she  said,  laughingly,  to  Prince, 
"  "Will  you  think  me  very  importunate  if  I 
ask  for  another  ?  "  "  Take  what  you  like  — 
you  have  only  to  name  it,"  he  replied,  gal- 
lantly. "  But  that 's  just  what  I  can't  do," 
responded  the  young  girl,  "  unless,"  she 
added,  turning  to  Guest,  "  unless  you  can  as- 
sist me.  It  was  the  plant  I  was  examining 
to-day."  "  I  think  I  can  show  it  to  you,"  said 
Guest,  with  a  slight  increase  of  color,  as  he 
preceded  her  towards  the  memorable  cactus 
near  the  door,  "but  I  doubt  if  it  has  any 
flower." 

Nevertheless,  it  had.  A  bright  red  blos- 
som, like  a  spot  of  blood  drawn  by  one  of 
its  thorns.  He  plucked  it  for  her,  and  she 
placed  it  in  her  belt. 


MARUJA.  215 

"  You  are  forgiving,"  he  said,  admiringly. 
"You  ought  to  know  that,"  she  returned, 
lookin    down. 


"  You  were  rude  to  me  twice." 

"  Twice  !  " 

"  Yes  —  once  at  the  Mision  of  La  Per- 
dida  ;  once  in  the  road  at  San  Antonio." 

His  eyes  became  downcast  and  gloomy. 
"  At  the  Mision  that  morning,  I,  a  wretched 
outcast,  only  saw  in  you  a  beautiful  girl  in- 
tent on  overriding  me  with  her  merciless 
beauty.  At  San  Antonio  I  handed  the  fan 
I  picked  up  to  the  man  whose  eyes  told  me 
he  loved  you." 

She  started  impatiently.  "  You  might 
have  been  more  gallant,  and  found  more 
difficulty  in  the  selection,"  she  said,  pertly. 
"But  since  when  have  you  gentlemen  be- 
come so  observant  and  so  punctilious  ? 
Would  you  expect  him  to  be  as  considerate 
of  others  ?  " 

"  I  have  few  claims  that  any  one  seems 


216  MARUJA. 

bound  to  respect,"  he  returned,  brusquely. 
Then,  in  a  softer  voice,  he  added,  looking 
at  her,  gently,  — 

"You  were  in  mourning  when  you  came 
here  this  afternoon,  Miss  Saltonstall." 

"Was  I?  It  was  for  Dr.  West  — my 
mother's  friend." 

"  It  was  very  becoming  to  you." 

"  You  are  complimenting  me.  But  I  warn 
you  that  Captain  Carroll  said  something 
better  than  that ;  he  said  mourning  was  not 
necessary  for  me.  I  had  only  to  4  put  my 
eye-lashes  at  half-mast.'  He  is  a  soldier, 
you  know." 

"  He  seems  to  be  as  witty  as  he  is  for- 
tunate," said  Guest,  bitterly. 

"  Do  you  think  he  is  fortunate  ? "  said 
Maruja,  raising  her  eyes  to  his.  There  was 
so  much  in  this  apparently  simple  question 
that  Guest  looked  in  her  eyes  for  a  sugges- 
tion. What  he  saw  there  for  an  instant 
made  his  heart  stop  beating.  She  apparently 
did  not  know  it,  for  she  began  to  tremble 
too. 


MARUJA.  217 

"  Is  he  not  ?  "  said  Guest,  in  a  low  voice. 

"  Do  you  think  he  ought  to  be  ? "  she 
found  herself  whispering. 

A  sudden  silence  fell  upon  them.  The 
voices  of  their  companions  seemed  very  far 
in  the  distance  ;  the  warm  breath  of  the  flow- 
ers appeared  to  be  drowning  their  senses; 
they  tried  to  speak,  but  could  not ;  they 
were  so  near  to  each  other  that  the  two 
long  blades  of  a  palm  served  to  hide  them. 
In  the  midst  of  this  profound  silence  a  voice 
that  was  like  and  yet  unlike  Maruja's  said 
twice,  "  Go  !  go  !  "  but  each  time  seemed 
hushed  in  the  stifling  silence.  The  next  mo- 
ment the  palms  were  pushed  aside,  the  dark 
figure  of  a  young  man  slipped  like  some  lithe 
animal  through  the  shrubbery,  and  Maruja 
found  herself  standing,  pale  and  rigid,  in 
the  middle  of  the  walk,  in  the  full  glare  of 
the  light,  and  looking  down  the  corridor  to- 
ward her  approaching  companions.  She  was 
furious  and  frightened  ;  she  was  triumphant 
and  trembling ;  without  thought,  sense,  or 


218  MARUJA. 

reason,  she  had  been  kissed  by  Henry  Guest, 
and  —  had  returned  it. 

The  fleetest  horses  of  Aladdin's  stud  that 
night  could  not  carry  her  far  enough  or  fast 
enough  to  take  her  away  from  that  moment, 
that  scene,  and  that  sensation.  Wise  and 
experienced,  confident  in  her  beauty,  secure 
in  her  selfishness,  strong  over  others'  weak- 
nesses, weighing  accurately  the  deeds  and 
words  of  men  and  women,  recognizing  all 
there  was  in  position  and  tradition,  seeing 
with  her  father's  clear  eyes  the  practical 
meaning  of  any  divergence  from  that  con- 
ventionality which  as  a  woman  of  the  world 
she  valued,  she  returned  again  and  again  to 
the  trembling  joy  of  that  intoxicating  mo- 
ment. She  thought  of  her  mother  and  sis- 
ters, of  Raymond  and  Garnier,  of  Aladdin 
—  she  even  forced  herself  to  think  of  Car- 
roll —  only  to  shut  her  eyes,  with  a  faint 
smile,  and  dream  again  the  brief  but  thrill- 
ing dream  of  Guest  that  began  and  ended 
in  their  joined  and  parted  lips.  Small  won- 


MARUJA.  219 

der  that,  hidden  and  silent  in  her  enwrap- 
pings,  as  she  lay  back  in  the  carriage,  with 
her  pale  face  against  the  cold  starry  sky, 
two  other  stars  came  out  and  glistened  and 
trembled  on  her  passion-fringed  lashes. 


CHAPTER  X. 

THE  rainy  season  had  set  in  early.  The 
last  three  weeks  of  summer  drought  had 
drained  the  great  valley  of  its  life-blood ; 
the  dead  stalks  of  grain  rustled  like  dry 
bones  over  Dr.  West's  grave.  The  desic- 
cating wind  and  sun  had  wrought  some  dis- 
enchanting cracks  and  fissures  in  Aladdin's 
Palace,  and  otherwise  disjoined  it,  so  that 
it  not  only  looked  as  if  it  were  ready  to  be 
packed  away,  but  had  become  finally  un- 
tenable in  the  furious  onset  of  the  south- 
westerly rains.  The  gorgeous  furniture  of 
the  reception-rooms  was  wrapped  in  mack- 
intoshes, the  conservatory  was  changed  into 
an  aquarium,  the  Bridge  of  Sighs  crossed 
an  actual  canal  in  the  stable-yard.  Only 
the  billiard-room  and  Mr.  Prince's  bed-room 
and  office  remained  intact,  and  in  the  latter, 


MARUJA.  221 

one  stormy  afternoon,  Mr.  Prince  himself 
sat  busy  over  his  books  and  papers.  His 
station-wagon,  splashed  and  streaked  with 
mud,  stood  in  the  court-yard,  just  as  it  had 
been  driven  from  the  station,  and  the  smell 
of  the  smoke  of  newly-lit  fires  showed  that 
the  house  had  been  opened  only  for  this 
hurried  visit  of  its  owner. 

The  tramping  of  horse  hoofs  in  the  court- 
yard was  soon  followed  by  steps  along  the 
corridor,  and  the  servant  ushered  Captain 
Carroll  into  the  presence  of  his  master. 
The  Captain  did  not  remove  his  military 
overcoat,  but  remained  standing  erect  in  the 
centre  of  the  room,  with  his  forage  cap  in 
his  hand. 

"  I  could  have  given  you  a  lift  from  the 
station,"  said  Prince,  "  if  you  had  come  that 
way.  I  've  only  just  got  in  myself." 

"  I  preferred  to  ride,"  said  Carroll,  dryly. 

"  Sit  down  by  the  fire,"  said  Prince,  mo- 
tioning to  a  chair,  "  and  dry  yourself." 

"  I  must  ask  you  first  the  purport  of  this 


222  MAEUJA. 

interview,"  said  Carroll,  curtly,  "  before  I 
prolong  it  further.  You  have  asked  me  to 
come  here  in  reference  to  certain  letters  I 
returned  to  their  rightful  owner  some  months 
ago.  If  you  seek  to  reclaim  them  again,  or 
to  refer  to  a  subject  which  must  remain  for- 
gotten, I  decline  to  proceed  further." 

"  It  does  refer  to  the  letters,  and  it  rests 
with  you  whether  they  shall  be  forgotten  or 
not.  It  is  not  my  fault  if  the  subject  has 
been  dropped.  You  must  remember  that 
until  yesterday  you  have  been  absent  on  a 
tour  of  inspection  and  could  not  be  applied 
to  before." 

Carroll  cast  a  cold  glance  at  Prince,  and 
then  threw  himself  into  a  chair,  with  his 
overcoat  still  on  and  his  long  military  boots 
crossed  before  the  fire.  Sitting  there  in 
profile  Prince  could  not  but  notice  that  he 
looked  older  and  sterner  than  at  their  last 
interview,  and  his  cheeks  were  thinned  as  if 
by  something  more  than  active  service. 

"  When  you  were  here  last  summer,"  be- 


MARUJA.  223 

gan  Prince,  leaning  forward  over  his  desk, 
"you  brought  me  a  piece  of  news  that  as- 
tounded me,  as  it  did  many  others.  It  was 
the  assignment  of  Dr.  West's  property  to 
Mrs.  Saltonstall.  That  was  something  there 
was  no  gainsaying ;  it  was  a  purely  business 
affair,  and  involved  nobody's  rights  but  the 
assignor.  But  this  was  followed,  a  day  or 
two  after,  by  the  announcement  of  the  Doc- 
tor's will,  making  the  same  lady  the  abso- 
lute and  sole  inheritor  of  the  same  property. 
That  seemed  all  right  too ;  for  there  were, 
apparently,  no  legal  heirs.  Since  then,  how- 
ever, it  has  been  discovered  that  there  is  a 
legal  heir  —  none  other  than  the  Doctor's 
only  son.  Now,  as  no  allusion  to  the  son's 
existence  was  made  in  that  will  —  which  was 
a  great  oversight  of  the  Doctor's  —  it  is  a 
fiction  of  the  law  that  such  an  omission  is  an 
act  of  forgetfulness,  and  therefore  leaves  the 
son  the  same  rights  as  if  there  had  been  no 
will  at  all.  In  other  words,  if  the  Doctor 
had  seen  fit  to  throw  his  scapegrace  son  a 


224  MARUJA. 

hundred  dollar  bill,  it  would  have  been  legal 
evidence  that  he  remembered  him.  As  he 
did  not,  it 's  a  fair  legal  presumption  that  he 
forgot  him,  or  that  the  will  is  incomplete." 

"This  seems  to  be  a  question  for  Mrs. 
Saltonstall's  lawyers  —  not  for  her  friends," 
said  Carroll,  coldly. 

"  Excuse  me ;  that  remains  for  you  to  de- 
cide —  when  you  hear  all.  You  understand 
at  present,  then,  that  Dr.  West's  property, 
both  by  assignment  and  will,  was  made  over, 
in  the  event  of  his  death,  not  to  his  legal 
heirs,  but  to  a  comparative  stranger.  It 
looked  queer  to  a  good  many  people,  but  the 
only  explanation  was,  that  the  Doctor  had 
fallen  very  much  in  love  with  the  widow  — 
that  he  would  have  probably  married  her  — 
had  he  lived."  ,. ,. 

With  an  unpleasant  recollection  that  this 
was  almost  exactly  Maruja's  explanation  of 
her  mother's  relations  to  Dr.  West,  Carroll 
returned,  impatiently,  "  If  you  mean  that 
their  private  relations  may  be  made  the  sub- 


MARUJA.  225 

ject  of  legal  discussion,  in  the  event  of  liti- 
gation in  regard  to  the  property,  that  again 
is  a  matter  for  Mrs.  Saltonstall  to  decide  — 
and  not  her  friends.  It  is  purely  a  matter 
of  taste." 

"  It  may  be  a  matter  of  discretion,  Cap- 
tain Carroll." 

"  Of  discretion !  "  repeated  Carroll,  super- 
ciliously. 

"  Well,"  said  Prince,  leaving  his  desk  and 
coming  to  the  fire-place,  with  his  hands  in 
his  pockets,  "what  would  you  call  it,  if  it 
could  be  found  that  Dr.  West,  on  leaving 
Mrs.  Saltonstall's  that  night,  did  not  meet 
with  an  accident,  was  not  thrown  from  his 
horse,  but  was  coolly  and  deliberately  mur- 
dered ! " 

Captain  Carroll's  swift  recollection  of  the  j 
discovery  he  himself  had  made  in  the  road,  \ 
and  its  inconsistency  with  the  accepted  the- 
ory  of  the  accident,  unmistakably  showed 
itself  in  his  face.  It  was  a  moment  before 
he  recovered  himself. 

15 


226  MARUJA. 

"  But  even  if  it  can  be  proved  to  have 
been  a  murder  and  not  an  accident,  what 
has  that  to  do  with  Mrs.  Saltonstall  or  her 
claim  to  the  property? " 

"Only  that  she  was  the  one  person  di- 
rectly benefited  by  his  death." 

Captain  Carroll  looked  at  him  steadily, 
and  then  rose  to  his  feet.  "Do  I  under- 
stand that  you  have  called  me  here  to  listen 
to  this  infamous  aspersion  of  a  lady  ?  " 

"  I  have  called  you  here,  Captain  Carroll, 
to  listen  to  the  arguments  that  may  be  used 
to  set  aside  Dr.  West's  will,  and  return  the 
property  to  the  legal  heir.  You  are  to  listen 
to  them  or  not,  as  you  choose  ;  but  I  warn 
you  that  your  opportunity  to  hear  them  in 
confidence  and  convey  them  to  your  friend 
will  end  here.  I  have  no  opinion  in  the  case, 
/only  tell  you  that  it  will  be  argued  that  Dr. 
West  was  unduly  influenced  to  make  a  will 
in  Mrs.  SaltonstalTs  favor ;  that,  after  hav- 
ing done  so,  it  will  be  shown  that,  just  before 
his  death,  he  became  aware  of  the  existence 


MARUJA.  227 

of  his  son  and  heir,  and  actually  had  an  in- 
terview with  him ;  that  he  visited  Mrs.  Sal- 
tonstall  that  evening,  with  the  records  of  his 
son's  identity  and  a  memorandum  of  his  in- 
terview in  his  pocket-book ;  and  that,  an  hour 
after  leaving  the  house,  he  was  foully  mur- 
dered. That  is  the  theory  which  Mrs.  Sal- 
tonstall  has  to  consider.  I  told  you  I  have 
no  opinion.  I  only  know  that  there  are  wit- 
nesses to  the  interview  of  the  Doctor  and  his 
son ;  there  is  evidence  of  murder,  and  the 
murderer  is  suspected ;  there  is  the  evidence 
of  the  pocket-book,  with  the  memorandum 
picked  up  on  the  spot,  which  you  handed  me 
yourself." 

"  Do  you  mean  to  say  that  you  will  per- 
mit this  pocket-book,  handed  you  in  confi- 
dence, to  be  used  for  such  an  infamous  pur- 
pose ?  "  said  Carroll. 

"  I  think  you  offered  it  to  me  in  exchange 
for  Dr.  West's  letters  to  Mrs.  Saltonstall," 
returned  Prince,  dryly.  "  The  less  said  about 
that,  the  less  is  likely  to  be  said  about  com- 


228  MARUJA. 

promising  letters  written  by  the  widow  to  tho 
Doctor,  which  she  got  you  to  recover  —  let- 
ters which  they  may  claim  had  a  bearing 
on  the  case,  and  even  lured  him  to  his  fate." 
For  an  instant  Captain  Carroll  recoiled 
before  the  gulf  which  seemed  to  open  at  the 
feet  of  the  unhappy  family.  For  an  instant 
a  terrible  doubt  possessed  him,  and  in  that 
doubt  he  found  a  new  reason  for  a  certain 
changed  and  altered  tone  in  Maruja's  later 
correspondence  with  him,  and  the  vague  hints 
she  had  thrown  out  of  the  impossibility  of 
their  union.  "  I  beg  you  will  not  press  me 
to  greater  candor,"  she  had  written,  "  and 
try  to  forget  me  before  you  learn  to  hate 
me."  For  an  instant  he  believed  —  and  even 
took  a  miserable  comfort  in  the  belief  —  that 
it  was  this  hideous  secret,  and  not  some  co- 
quettish caprice,  to  which  she  vaguely  al- 
luded. But  it  was  only  for  a  moment ;  the 
next  instant  the  monstrous  doubt  passed  from 
the  mind  of  the  simple  gentleman,  with  only 
a  slight  flush  of  shame  at  his  momentary  dis- 
loyalty. 


MARUJA.  229 

Prince,  however,  had  noticed  it,  not  with- 
out a  faint  sense  of  sympathy.  "  Look 
here !  "  he  said,  with  a  certain  brusqueness, 
which  in  a  man  of  his  character  was  less 
dangerous  than  his  smoothness.  "  I  know 
your  feelings  to  that  family  —  at  least  to  one 
of  them  —  and,  if  I  've  been  playing  it  pretty 
rough  on  you,  it 's  only  because  you  played 
it  rather  rough  on  me  the  last  time  you  were 
here.  Let 's  understand  each  other.  I  '11 
go  so  far  as  to  say  /don't  believe  that  Mrs. 
Saltonstall  had  anything  to  do  with  that 
murder,  but,  as  a  business  man,  I  'm  bound 
to  say  that  these  circumstances  and  her  own 
indiscretion  are  quite  enough  to  bring  the 
biggest  pressure  down  on  her.  I  wouldn't 
want  any  better  ;  bear '  on  the  market  value 
of  her  rights  than  this.  Take  it  at  its  best. 
Say  that  the  Coroner's  verdict  is  set  aside, 
and  a  charge  of  murder  against  unknown 
parties  is  made  "  — 

"  One  moment,  Mr.  Prince,"  said  Carroll. 
"  I  shall  be  one  of  the  first  to  insist  that  this 


230  MARUJA. 

is  done,  and  I  have  confidence  enough  in 
Mrs.  SaltonstalFs  honest  friendship  for  the 
Doctor  to  know  that  she  will  lose  no  time  in 
pursuing  his  murderers." 

Prince  looked  at  Carroll  with  a  feeling  of 
half  envy  and  half  pity.  "  I  think  not,"  he 
said,  dryly  ;  "  for  all  suspicion  points  to  one 
man  as  the  perpetrator,  and  that  man  was 
Mrs.  SaltonstalTs  confidential  servant  —  the 
mayordomo,  Pereo."  He  waited  for  a  mo- 
ment for  the  effect  of  this  announcement 
on  Carroll,  and  then  went  on:  "You  now 
understand  that,  even  if  Mrs.  Saltonstall  is 
acquitted  of  any  connivance  with  or  even 
knowledge  of  the  deed,  she  will  hardly  enjoy 
the  prosecution  of  her  confidential  servant 
for  murder." 

"  But  how  can  this  be  prevented  ?  If,  as 
you  say,  there  are  actual  proofs,  why  have 
they  not  been  acted  upon  before  ?  What  can 
keep  them  from  being  acted  upon  now  ?  " 

"  The  proofs  have  been  collected  by  one 
man,  have  been  in  possession  of  one  man, 


MARUJA.  231 

and  will  only  pass  out  of  his  possession  when 
it  is  for  the  benefit  of  the  legal  heir  —  who 
does  not  yet  even  know  of  their  existence." 

"  And  who  is  this  one  man  ?  " 

"Myself." 

"  You  ?  —  You  ?  "  said  Carroll,  advancing 
towards  him.  "  Then  this  is  your  work !  " 

"Captain  Carroll,"  said  Prince,  without 
moving,  but  drawing  his  lips  tightly  together 
and  putting  his  head  on  one  side,  "  I  don't 
propose  to  have  another  scene  like  the  one 
we  had  at  our  last  meeting.  If  you  try  on 
anything  of  that  kind,  I  shall  put  the  whole 
matter  into  a  lawyer's  hands.  I  don't  say 
that  you  won't  regret  it ;  I  don't  say  that  I 
sha'nt  be  disappointed,  too,  for  I  have  been 
managing  this  thing  purely  as  a  matter  of 
business,  with  a  view  to  profiting  by  it.  It 
so  happens  that  we  can  both  work  to  the 
same  end,  even  if  our  motives  are  not  the 
same.  I  don't  call  myself  an  officer  and  a 
gentleman,  but  I  reckon  I  've  run  this  affair 
about  as  delicately  as  the  best  of  them,  and 


232  MARUJA. 

with  a  d d  sight  more  horse  sense.      I 

want  this  thing  hushed  up  and  compromised, 
to  get  some  control  of  the  property  again, 
and  to  prevent  it  depreciating,  as  it  would, 
in  litigation  ;  you  want  it  hushed  up  for  the 
sake  of  the  girl  and  your  future  mother-in- 
law.  I  don't  know  anything  about  your 
laws  of  honor,  but  I  Ve  laid  my  cards  on 
the  table  for  you  to  see,  without  asking  what 
you  Ve  got  in  your  hand.  You  can  play 
the  game  or  leave  the  board,  as  you  choose." 
He  turned  and  walked  to  the  window  —  not 
without  leaving  on  Carroll's  mind  a  certain 
sense  of  firmness,  truthfulness,  and  sincerity 
which  commanded  his  respect. 

"  I  withdraw  any  remark  that  might  have 
seemed  to  reflect  on  your  business  integrity, 
Mr.  Prince,"  said  Carroll,  quietly.  "  I  am 
willing  to  admit  that  you  nave  managed 
this  thing  better  than  I  could,  and,  if  I  join 
you  in  an  act  to  suppress  these  revelations, 
I  have  no  right  to  judge  of  your  intentions. 
What  do  you  propose  to  have  me  do  ?  " 


MARUJA.  233 

"To  state  the  whole  case  to  Mrs.  Sal- 
tonstall,  and  to  ask  her  to  acknowledge 
the  young  man's  legal  claim  without  litiga- 
tion." 

"  But  how  do  you  know  that  she  would 
not  do  this  without  —  excuse  me  —  without 
intimidation  ?  " 

"  I  only  reckon  that  a  woman  clever 
enough  to  get  hold  of  a  million,  would  be 
clever  enough  to  keep  it  —  against  others." 

"  I  hope  to  show  you  are  mistaken.  But 
where  is  this  heir?" 

"  Here." 

"Here?" 

"  Yes.  For  the  last  six  months  he  has 
been  my  private  secretary.  I  know  what 
you  are  thinking  of,  Captain  Carroll.  You 
would  consider  it  indelicate  —  eh  ?  Well, 
that 's  just  where  we  differ.  By  this  means 
I  have  kept  everything  in  my  own  hands  — 
prevented  him  from  getting  into  the  hands 
of  outsiders  —  and  I  intend  to  dispose  of 
just  as  much  of  the  facts  to  him  as  may  be 


234  MARUJA. 

necessary  for  him  to  prove  his  title.  What 
bargain  I  make  with  him  —  is  my  affair." 

"  Does  he  suspect  the  murder  ?  " 

"  No.  I  did  not  think  it  necessary  for 
his  good  or  mine.  He  can  be  an  ugly  devil 
if  he  likes,  and  although  there  wasn't  much 
love  lost  between  him  and  the  old  man,  it 
would  n't  pay  to  have  any  revenge  mixed  up 
with  business.  He  knows  nothing  of  it.  It 
was  only  by  accident  that,  looking  after  his 
movements  while  he  was  here,  I  ran  across 
the  tracks  of  the  murderer." 

"  But  what  has  kept  him  from  making 
known  his  claim  to  the  Saltonstalls  ?  Are 
you  sure  he  has  not  ?  "  said  Carroll,  with  a 
sudden  thought  that  it  might  account  for 
Maruja's  strangeness. 

"  Positive.  He 's  too  proud  to  make  a 
claim  unless  he  could  thoroughly  prove  it, 
and  only  a  month  ago  he  made  me  promise 
to  keep  it  dark.  He  's  too  lazy  to  trouble 
himself  about  it  much  anyway  —  as  far  as 
I  can  see.  D d  if  I  don't  think  his  be- 


MARUJA.  235 

ing  a  tramp  has  made  him  lose  his  taste  for 
everything !  Don't  worry  yourself  about 
him.  He  is  n't  likely  to  make  confidences 
with  the  Saltonstalls,  for  he  don't  like  'em, 
and  never  went  there  but  once.  Instinct- 
ively or  not,  the  widow  did  n't  cotton  to 
him ;  and  I  fancy  Miss  Maruja  has  some 
old  grudge  against  him  for  that  fan  business 
on  the  road.  She  is  n't  a  girl  to  forgive  or 
forget  anything,  as  I  happen  to  know,"  he 
added,  with  an  uneasy  laugh. 

Carroll  was  too  preoccupied  with  the  dan- 
ger that  seemed  to  threaten  his  friends  from 
this  surly  pretender  to  resent  Prince's  tact- 
less allusion.  He  was  thinking  of  Maruja's 
ominous  agitation  at  his  presence  at  Dr. 
West's  grave.  "  Do  they  suspect  him  at 
all  ?  "  —  he  asked,  hurriedly. 

"How  should  they?  He  goes  by  the 
name  of  Guest  —  which  was  his  father's  real 
name  until  changed  by  an  act  of  legislation 
when  he  first  came  here.  Nobody  remem- 
bers it.  We  only  found  it  out  from  his  pa- 


236  MARUJA. 

pers.  It  was  quite  legal,  as  all  his  property 
was  acquired  under  the  name  of  West." 

Carroll  rose  and  buttoned  his  overcoat. 
"  I  presume  you  are  able  to  offer  conclusive 
proofs  of  everything  you  have  asserted  ?  " 

"  Perfectly." 

"  I  am  going  to  the  Mision  Perdida  now," 
said  Captain  Carroll,  quietly.  "  To-morrow 
I  will  bring  you  the  answer  —  Peace  or 
War."  He  walked  to  the  door,  lifted  his 
hand  to  his  cap,  with  a  brief  military  saluta- 
tion, and  disappeared. 


CHAPTER   XI. 

As  Captain  Carroll  urged  his  horse  along 
the  miry  road  to  La  Mision  Perdida,  he  was 
struck  with  certain  changes  in  the  landscape 
before  him  other  than  those  wrought  by  the 
winter  rains.  There  were  the  usual  deep 
gullies  and  trenches,  half -filled  with  water,  in 
the  fields  and  along  the  road,  but  there  were 
ominous  embankments  and  ridges  of  freshly 
turned  soil,  and  a  scattered  fringe  of  timbers 
following  a  cruel,  undeviating  furrow  on  the 
broad  grazing  lands  of  the  Mision.  But  it 
was  not  until  he  had  crossed  the  arroyo 
that  he  felt  the  full  extent  of  the  late  im- 
provements. A  quick  rumbling  in  the  dis- 
tance, a  light  flash  of  steam  above  the  wil- 
low copse,  that  drifted  across  the  field  on  his 
right,  and  he  knew  that  the  railroad  was  al- 
ready in  operation.  Captain  Carroll  reined 


238  MARUJA. 

in  his  frightened  charger,  and  passed  his 
hand  across  his  brow  with  a  dazed  sense  of 
loss.  He  had  been  gone  only  four  months 
—  yet  he  already  felt  strange  and  forgot- 
ten. 

It  was  with  a  feeling  of  relief  that  he  at 
last  turned  from  the  high-road  into  the  lane. 
Here  everything  was  unchanged,  except  that 
the  ditches  were  more  thickly  strewn  with 
the  sodden  leaves  of  fringing  oaks  and  syca- 
mores. Giving  his  horse  to  a  servant  in  the 
court-yard,  he  did  not  enter  the  patio,  but, 
crossing  the  lawn,  stepped  upon  the  long 
veranda.  The  rain  was  dripping  from  its 
eaves  and  striking  a  minute  spray  from  the 
vines  that  clung  to  its  columns  :  his  footfall 
awoke  a  hollow  echo  as  he  passed,  as  if  the 
outer  shell  of  the  house  were,  deserted  ;  the 
formal  yews  and  hemlocks  that  in  summer 
had  relieved  the  dazzling  glare  of  six  months' 
sunshine  had  now  taken  gloomy  possession 
of  the  garden,  and  the  evening  shadows, 
thickened  by  rain,  seemed  to  lie  in  wait  at 


MARUJA.  239 

every  corner.  The  servant,  who  had,  with 
old-fashioned  courtesy,  placed  the  keys  and 
the  "  disposition  "  of  that  wing  of  the  house 
at  his  service,  said  that  Dona  Maria  would 
wait  upon  him  in  the  salon  before  dinner. 
Knowing  the  difficulty  of  breaking  the  usual 
rigid  etiquette,  and  trusting  to  the  happy  in- 
tervention of  Maruja  —  though  here,  again, 
custom  debarred  him  from  asking  for  her  — 
he  allowed  the  servant  to  remove  his  wet 
overcoat,  and  followed  him  to  the  stately 
and  solemn  chamber  prepared  for  him.  The 
silence  and  gloom  of  the  great  house,  so 
grateful  and  impressive  in  the  ardent  sum- 
mer, began  to  weigh  upon  him  under  this 
shadow  of  an  overcast  sky.  He  walked  to 
the  window  and  gazed  out  on  the  cloister-like 
veranda.  A  melancholy  willow  at  an  angle 
of  the  stables  seemed  to  be  wringing  its 
hands  in  the  rising  wind.  He  turned  for 
relief  to  the  dim  fire  that  flickered  like  a 
votive  taper  in  the  vault-like  hearth,  and 
drew  a  chair  towards  it.  In  spite  of  the  im- 


240  MARUJA. 

patience  and  preoccupation  of  a  lover,  he 
found  himself  again  and  again  recurring  to 
the  story  he  had  just  heard,  until  the  venge- 
ful spirit  of  the  murdered  Doctor  seemed  to 
darken  and  possess  the  house.  He  was 
striving  to  shake  off  the  feeling,  when  his 
attention  was  attracted  to  stealthy  footsteps 
in  the  passage.  Could  it  be  Maruja  ?  He 
rose  to  his  feet,  with  his  eye  upon  the  door. 
The  footsteps  ceased  —  it  remained  closed. 
But  another  door,  which  had  escaped  his  at- 
tention in  the  darkened  corner,  slowly  swung 
on  its  hinges,  and,  with  a  stealthy  step,  Pereo, 
the  mayordomo,  entered  the  room. 

Courageous  and  self-possessed  as  Captain 
Carroll  was  by  nature  and  education,  this 
malevolent  vision,  and  incarnation  of  the 
thought  uppermost  in  his  mind,  turned  him 
cold.  He  had  half  drawn  a  derringer  from 
his  breast,  when  his  eye  fell  on  the  grizzled 
locks  and  wrinkled  face  of  the  old  man,  and 
his  hand  dropped  to  his  side.  But  Pereo, 
with  the  quick  observation  of  insanity,  had 


MARUJA.  241 

noticed  the  weapon,  and  rubbed  his  hands 
together,  with  a  malicious  laugh. 

"  Good  !  good !  good  ! "  he  whispered,  rap- 
idly, in  a  strange  bodiless  voice ;  "  't  will 
serve !  t'  will  serve !  And  you  are  a  soldier 
too  —  and  know  how  to  use  it !  Good,  it  is 
a  Providence  !  "  He  lifted  his  hollow  eyes  to 
heaven,  and  then  added,  "  Come !  come  !  " 

Carroll  stepped  towards  him.  He  was 
alone  and  in  the  presence  of  an  undoubted 
madman  —  one  strong  enough,  in  spite  of 
his  years,  to  inflict  a  deadly  injury,  and  one 
whom  he  now  began  to  realize  might  have 
done  so  once  before.  Nevertheless,  he  laid 
his  hand  on  the  old  man's  arm,  and,  looking 
him  calmly  in  the  eye,  said,  quietly,  "  Come  ? 
Where,  Pereo  ?  I  have  only  just  arrived." 

"  I  know  it,"  whispered  the  old  man,  nod- 
ding his  head  violently.  "I  was  watching 
them,  when  you  rode  up.  That  is  why  I  lost 
the  scent ;  but  together  we  can  track  them 
still  —  we  can  track  them.  Eh,  Captain,  eh ! 
Come !  Come  !  "  and  he  moved  slowly  back- 
ward, waving  his  hand  towards  the  door. 


242  MARUJA. 

"  Track  wliom,  Pereo  ?  "  said  Carroll, 
soothingly.  "  Whom  do  you  seek  ?  " 

"  Whom  ?  "  said  the  old  man,  startled  for 
a  moment  and  passing  his  hand  over  his 
wrinkled  forehead.  "  Whom  ?  Eh  !  Why, 
the  Dona  Maruja  and  the  little  black  cat  — 
her  maid  —  Faquita !  " 

"  Yes,  but  why  seek  them  ?  Why  track 
them?" 

"  Why  ? "  said  the  old  man,  with  a  sud- 
den burst  of  impotent  passion.  "  You  ask 
me  why  !  Because  they  are  going  to  the  ren- 
dezvous again.  They  are  going  to  seek  him. 
Do  you  understand  —  to  seek  him  —  the 
Coyote !  " 

Carroll  smiled  a  faint  smile  of  relief  — 
"So— the  Coyote!" 

"  Ay,"  said  the  old  man,  in  a  confidential 
whisper ;  "  the  Coyote  !  But  not  the  big 
one  —  you  understand  —  the  little  one.  The 
big  one  is  dead  —  dead  —  dead  !  But  the 
little  one  lives  yet.  You  shall  do  for  him 
what  I,  Pereo  —  listen  "  —  he  glanced 


MARUJA.  243 

around  the  room  furtively  —  "  what  I  —  the 
good  old  Pereo,  did  for  the  big  one  !  Good, 
it  is  a  Providence.  Come  !  "  — 

Of  the  terrible  thoughts  that  crossed  Car- 
roll's mind  at  this  unexpected  climax  one 
alone  was  uppermost.  The  trembling  irre- 
sponsible wretch  before  him  meditated  some 
vague  crime  —  and  Maruja  was  in  danger. 
He  did  not  allow  himself  to  dwell  upon  any 
other  suspicion  suggested  by  that  speech  ;  he 
quickly  conceived  a  plan  of  action.  To  have 
rung  the  bell  and  given  Pereo  into  the  hands 
of  the  servants  would  have  only  exposed  to 
them  the  lunatic's  secret  —  if  he  had  any  — 
and  he  might  either  escape  in  his  fury  or 
relapse  into  useless  imbecility.  To  humor 
him  and  follow  him,  and  trust  afterwards  to 
his  own  quickness  and  courage  to  avert  any 
calamity,  seemed  to  be  the  only  plan.  Cap- 
tain Carroll  turned  his  clear  glance  on  the 
restless  eyes  of  Pereo,  and  said,  without 
emotion,  "Let  us  go,  then,  and  quickly. 
You  shall  track  them  for  me;  but  remem- 


244  MARUJA. 

ber,  good  Pereo,  you  must  leave  the  rest  to 
me." 

In  spite  of  himself,  some  accidental  sig- 
nificance in  this  ostentatious  adjuration  to 
lull  Pereo's  suspicions  struck  him  with  pain. 
But  the  old  man's  eyes  glittered  with  grati- 
fied passion  as  he  said,  "  Ay,  good !  I  will 
keep  my  word.  Thou  shalt  work  thy  will  on 
the  little  one  as  I  have  said.  Truly  it  is  a 
Providence  !  Come !  "  Seeing  Captain  Car- 
roll glance  round  for  his  overcoat,  he  seized 
a  poncho  from  the  wall,  wrapped  it  round 
him,  and  grasped  his  hand.  Carroll,  who 
would  have  evaded  this  semblance  of  dis- 
guise, had  no  time  to  parley,  and  they  turned 
together,  through  the  door  by  which  Pereo 
had  entered,  into  a  long  dark  passage,  which 
seemed  to  be  made  through  the  outer  shell 
of  the  building  that  flanked  the  park.  Fol- 
lowing his  guide  in  the  profound  obscurity, 
perfectly  conscious  that  any  change  in  his 
madness  might  be  followed  by  a  struggle  in 
the  dark,  where  no  help  could  reach  them, 


MARUJA.  245 

they  presently  came  to  a  door  that  opened 
upon  the  fresh  smell  of  rain  and  leaves. 
They  were  standing  at  the  bottom  of  a  se- 
cluded alley,  between  two  high  hedges  that 
hid  it  from  the  end  of  the  garden.  Its  grass- 
grown  walk  and  untrimmed  hedges  showed 
that  it  was  seldom  used.  Carroll,  still  keep- 
ing close  to  Pereo's  side,  felt  him  suddenly 
stop  and  tremble.  "  Look !  "  he  said,  point- 
ing to  a  shadowy  figure  some  distance  before 
them ;  "  look,  't  is  Maruja,  and  alone !  " 

With  a  dexterous  movement,  Carroll  man- 
aged to  slip  his  arm  securely  through  the  old 
man's,  and  even  to  throw  himself  before  him, 
as  if  in  his  eagerness  to  discern  the  figure. 

"  'T  is  Maruja  —  and  alone !  "  said  Pereo, 
trembling.  "  Alone !  Eh  !  And  the  Coyote 
is  not  here  !  "  He  passed  his  hand  over  his 
staring  eyes.  uSo."  Suddenly  he  turned 
upon  Carroll.  "  Ah,  do  you  not  see,  it  is  a 
trick !  The  Coyote  is  escaping  with  Fa- 
quita  !  Come !  Nay ;  thou  wilt  not  ?  Then 
will  I !  "  With  an  unexpected  strength  born 


246  MARUJA. 

of  his  madness,  he  freed  his  arm  from  Car- 
roll and  darted  down  the  alley.  The  figure 
of  Maruja,  evidently  alarmed  at  his  ap- 
proach, glided  into  the  hedge,  as  Pereo 
passed  swiftly  by,  intent  only  on  his  one 
wild  fancy.  Without  a  further  thought  of 
his  companion  or  even  the  luckless  Faquita, 
Carroll  also  plunged  through  the  hedge,  to 
intercept  Maruja.  But  by  that  time  she  was 
already  crossing  the  upper  end  of  the  lawn, 
hurrying  towards  the  entrance  to  the  patio. 
Carroll  did  not  hesitate  to  follow.  Keeping 
in  view  the  lithe,  dark,  active  little  figure, 
now  hidden  by  an  intervening  cluster  of 
bushes,  now  fading  in  the  gathering  evening 
shadows,  he  nevertheless  did  not  succeed  in 
gaining  upon  her  until  she  had  nearly 
reached  the  patio.  Here  he  lost  ground,  as, 
turning  to  the  right,  instead  of  entering  the 
court -yard,  she  kept  her  way  toward  the 
stables.  He  was  near  enough,  however,  to 
speak.  "One  moment,  Miss  Saltonstall," 
he  said,  hurriedly ;  "  there  is  no  danger.  I 
am  alone.  But  1  must  speak  with  you." 


MARUJA,  247 

The  young  girl  seemed  only  to  redouble 
her  exertions.  At  last  she  stopped  before  a 
narrow  door  hidden  in  the  wall,  and  fumbled 
in  her  pocket  for  a  key.  That  moment  Car- 
roll was  upon  her. 

"  Forgive  me,  Miss  Saltonstall  —  Maruja ; 
but  you  must  hear  me !  You  are  safe,  but  I 
fear  for  your  maid,  Faquita  !  " 

A  little  laugh  followed  his  speech;  the 
door  yielded  and  opened  to  her  vanishing 
figure.  For  an  instant  the  lace  shawl  muf- 
fling her  face  was  lifted,  as  the  door  closed 
and  locked  behind  her.  Carroll  drew  back 
in  consternation.  It  was  the  laughing  eyes 
and  saucy  face  of  Faquita ! 


CHAPTER  XII. 

WHEN  Captain  Carroll  turned  from  the 
high-road  into  the  lane,  an  hour  before, 
Maruja  and  Faquita  had  already  left  the 
house  by  the  same  secret  passage  and  gar- 
den-door that  opened  afterwards  upon  him- 
self and  Pereo.  The  young  women  had 
evidently  changed  dresses  :  Maruja  was 
wearing  the  costume  of  her  maid ;  Faquita 
was  closely  veiled  and  habited  like  her 
mistress;  but  it  was  characteristic  that, 
while  Faquita  appeared  awkward  and  over- 
dressed in  her  borrowed  plumes,  Maruja's 
short  saya  and  trim  bodice,  with  the  striped 
shawl  that  hid  her  fair  head,  looked  infi- 
nitely more  coquettish  and  bewitching  than 
on  its  legitimate  owner0 

They  passed  hurriedly  down  the  long 
alley,  and  at  its  further  end  turned  at  right 


MARUJA.  249 

angles  to  a  small  gate  half  hidden  in  the 
shrubbery.  It  opened  upon  a  venerable 
vineyard,  that  dated  back  to  the  occupation 
of  the  padres,  but  was  now  given  over  to 
the  chance  cultivation  of  peons  and  domes- 
tics. Its  long,  broken  rows  of  low  vines, 
knotted  and  overgrown  with  age,  reached 
to  the  thicketed  hillside  of  buckeye  that 
marked  the  beginning  of  the  Canada.  Here 
Maruja  parted  from  her  maid,  and,  muffling 
the  shawl  more  closely  round  her  head, 
hastily  passed  between  the  vine  rows  to  a 
ruined  adobe  building  near  the  hillside.  It 
was  originally  part  of  the  refectory  of  the 
old  Mision,  but  had  been  more  recently  used 
as  a  vinadero's  cottage.  As  she  neared  it, 
her  steps  grew  slower,  until,  reaching  its 
door,  she  hesitated,  with  her  hand  timidly  on 
the  latch.  The  next  moment  she  opened  it 
gently;  it  was  closed  quickly  behind  her, 
and,  with  a  little  stifled  cry,  she  found  her- 
self in  the  arms  of  Henry  Guest. 

It  was  only  for  an  instant ;  the  pleading 


250  MARUJA. 

of  her  white  hands,  disengaged  from  his 
neck,  where  at  first  they  had  found  them- 
selves, and  uplifted  before  her  face,  touched 
him  more  than  the  petitioning  eyes  or  the 
sweet  voiceless  mouth,  whose  breath  even 
was  forgotten.  Letting  her  sink  into  the 
chair  from  which  he  had  just  risen,  he  drew 
back  a  step,  with  his  hands  clasped  before 
him,  and  his  dark  half-savage  eyes  bent 
earnestly  upon  her.  Well  might  he  have 
gazed.  It  was  no  longer  the  conscious 
beauty,  proud  and  regnant,  seated  before 
him ;  but  a  timid,  frightened  girl,  struggling 
with  her  first  deep  passion. 

All  that  was  wise  and  gentle  that  she  had 
intended  to  say,  all  that  her  clear  intellect 
and  experience  had  taught  her,  died  upon 
her  lips  with  that  kiss.  And  all  that  she 
could  do  of  womanly  dignity  and  high-bred 
decorum  was  to  tuck  her  small  feet  under 
her  chair,  in  the  desperate  attempt  to  length- 
en her  short  skirt,  and  beg  him  not  to  look 
at  her. 


MARUJA.  251 

"I  have  had  to  change  dresses  with  Fa- 
quita,  because  we  were  watched,"  she  said, 
leaning  forward  in  her  chair  and  drawing 
the  striped  shawl  around  her  shoulders. 
"  I  have  had  to  steal  out  of  my  mother's 
house  and  through  the  fields,  as  if  I  was  a 
gypsy.  If  I  only  were  a  gypsy,  Harry,  and 
not  "  — 

"And  not  the  proudest  heiress  in  the 
land,"  he  interrupted,  with  something  of 
his  old  bitterness.  "  True,  I  had  forgot." 

"  But  I  never  reminded  you  of  it,"  she 
said,  lifting  her  eyes  to  his.  "  I  did  not 
remind  you  of  it  on  that  day  —  in  —  in  —  in 
the  conservatory,  nor  at  the  time  you  first 
spoke  of  —  of  —  love  to  me  —  nor  from  the 
time  I  first  consented  to  meet  you  here.  It 
is  yo u,  Harry,  who  have  spoken  of  the 
difference  of  our  condition,  you  who  have 
talked  of  my  wealth,  my  family,  my  position 
—  until  I  would  gladly  have  changed  places 
with  Faquita  as  I  have  garments,  if  I  had 
thought  it  would  make  you  happier." 


252  MARUJA. 

u  Forgive  me,  darling ! "  he  said,  drop- 
ping on  one  knee  before  her  and  bending 
over  the  cold  little  hand  he  had  taken,  until 
his  dark  head  almost  rested  in  her  lap. 
"  Forgive  me  !  You  are  too  proud,  Maruja, 
to  admit,  even  to  yourself,  that  you  have 
given  your  heart  where  your  hand  and  for- 
tune could  not  follow.  But  others  may  not 
think  so.  I  am  proud,  too,  and  will  not 
have  it  said  that  I  have  won  you  before  I 
was  worthy  of  you." 

"  You  have  no  right  to  be  more  proud 
than  I,  sir,"  she  said,  rising  to  her  feet, 
with  a  touch  of  her  old  supreme  assertion. 
"  No  —  don't,  Harry  —  please,  Harry  — 
there  !  "  Nevertheless,  she  succumbed  ;  and, 
when  she  went  on,  it  was  with  her  head  rest- 
ing on  his  shoulder.  "  It 's  this  deceit  and 
secrecy  that  is  so  shameful,  Harry.  I  think 
I  could  bear  everything  with  you,  if  it  were 
all  known  —  if  you  came  to  woo  me  like  — 
like  —  the  others.  Even  if  they  abused  you 
—  if  they  spoke  of  your  doubtful  origin  —  of 


MARUJA.  253 

your  poverty  —  of  your  hardships  !  When 
they  aspersed  you,  I  could  fight  them  ;  when, 
they  spoke  of  your  having  no  father  that 
you  could  claim,  I  could  even  lie  for  you,  I 
think,  Harry,  and  say  that  you  had ;  if  they 
spoke  of  your  poverty,  I  would  speak  of  my 
wealth  ;  if  they  talked  of  your  hardships,  I 
should  only  be  proud  of  your  endurance  — 
if  I  could  only  keep  the  tears  from  my 
eyes !  "  They  were  there  now.  He  kissed 
them  away. 

"  But  if  they  threatened  you  ?  If  they 
drove  me  from  the  house  ?  " 

"  I  should  fly  with  you,"  she  said,  hiding 
her  head  in  his  breast. 

"  What  if  I  were  to  ask  you  to  fly  with 
me  now  ?  "  he  said,  gloomily. 

"  Now  !  "  she  repeated,  lifting  her  fright- 
ened eyes  to  his. 

His  face  darkened,  with  its  old  look  of 
savage  resentment.  "  Hear  me,  Maruja,"  he 
said,  taking  her  hands  tightly  in  his  own. 
"  When  I  forgot  myself  —  when  I  was  mad 


254  MARUJA. 

that  day  in  the  conservatory,  the  only  ex- 
piation I  could  think  of  was  to  swear  in  my 
inmost  soul  that  I  would  never  take  advan- 
tage of  your  forgiveness,  that  I  would  never 
'  tempt  you  to  forget  yourself,  your  friends, 
your  family,  for  me,  an  unknown  outcast. 
When  I  found  you  pitied  me,  and  listened 
to  my  love  —  I  was  too  weak  to  forego  the 
one  ray  of  sunshine  in  my  wretched  life  — 
and,  thinking  that  I  had  a  prospect  before 
me  in  an  idea  I  promised  to  reveal  to  you 
later,  I  swore  never  to  beguile  you  or  my- 
self in  that  hope  by  any  act  that  might 
bring  you  to  repent  it  —  or  myself  to  dis- 
honor. But  I  taxed  myself  too  much,  Ma- 
ruja.  I  have  asked  too  much  of  you.  You 
are  right,  darling;  this  secrecy  —  this  de- 
ceit —  is  unworthy  of  us  !  Every  hour  of 
it  —  blest  as  it  has  been  to  me  —  every  mo- 
ment —  sweet  as  it  is  —  blackens  the  purity 
of  our  only  defense,  makes  you  false  and  me 
a  coward  !  It  must  end  here  —  to-day  !  Ma- 
ruja,  darling,  my  precious  one  !  God  knows 


MARUJA.  255 

what  may  be  the  success  of  my  plans.  We 
have  but  one  chance  now.  I  must  leave 
here  to-day,  never  to  return,  or  I  must  take 
you  with  me.  Do  not  start,  Maruja  —  but 
hear  me  out.  Dare  you  risk  all?  Dare 
you  fly  with  me  now,  to-night,  to  the  old 
Padre  at  the  ruined  Mision,  and  let  him 
bind  us  in  those  bonds  that  none  dare  break  ? 
We  can  take  Faquita  with  us  —  it  is  but  a 
few  miles  —  and  we  can  return  and  throw 
ourselves  at  your  mother's  feet.  She  can 
only  drive  us  forth  together.  Or  we  can  fly 
from  this  cursed  wealth,  and  all  the  misery 
it  has  entailed  —  forever." 

She  raised  her  head,  and,  with  her  two 
hands  on  his  shoulders,  gazed  at  him  with 
her  father's  searching  eyes,  as  if  to  read  his 
very  soul. 

"  Are  you  mad,  Harry!  — think  what  you 
propose  !  Is  this  not  tempting  me  ?  Think 
again,  dearest,"  she  said,  half  convulsively, 
seizing  his  arm  when  her  grasp  had  slipped 
from  his  shoulder. 


256  MARUJA. 

There  was  a  momentary  silence  as  she 
stood  with  her  eyes  fixed  almost  wildly  on 
his  set  face.  But  a  sudden  shock  against 
the  bolted  door  and  an  inarticulate  outcry- 
startled  them.  With  an  instinctive  move- 
ment, Guest  threw  his  arm  round  her. 

"  It 's  Pereo,"  she  said,  in  a  hurried  whis- 
per, but  once  more  mistress  of  her  strength 
and  resolution.  "  He  is  seeking  you  !  Fly 
at  once.  He  is  mad,  Harry ;  a  raving  luna- 
tic. He  watched  us  the  last  time.  He  has 
tracked  us  here.  He  suspects  you.  You 
must  not  meet  him.  -5Tou  can  escape  through 
the  other  door,  that  opens  upon  the  cafiada. 
If  you  love  me  —  fly  !  " 

"  And  leave  you  exposed  to  his  fury  — 
are  you  mad!  No.  Fly  yourself  by  the 
other  door,  lock  it  behind .  you,  and  alarm 
the  servants.  I  will  open  this  door  to  him, 
secure  him  here,  and  then  be  gone.  Do  not 
fear  for  me.  There  is  no  danger  —  and  if  I 
mistake  not,"  he  added,  with  a  strange  sig- 
nificance, "  he  will  hardly  attack  me !  " 


•     MARUJA.  257 

"But  he  may  have  already  alarmed  the 
household.  Hark !  " 

There  was  the  noise  of  a  struggle  outside 
the  door,  and  then  the  voice  of  Captain  Car- 
roll, calm  and  collected,  rose  clearly  for  an 
instant.  "  You  are  quite  safe,  Miss  Salton- 
stall.  I  think  I  have  him  secure,  but  per- 
haps you  had  better  not  open  the  door  until 
assistance  comes." 

They  gazed  at  each  other,  without  a  word. 
A  grim  challenge  played  on  Guest's  lips. 
Maruja  lifted  her  little  hands  deliberately, 
and  clasped  them  round  his  defiant  neck. 

"  Listen,  darling,"  she  said,  softly  and 
quietly,  as  if  only  the  security  of  silence  and 
darkness  encompassed  them.  "You  asked 
me  just  now  if  I  would  fly  with  you  —  if  I 
would  marry  you,  without  the  consent  of  my 
family  —  against  the  protest  of  my  friends 
—  and  at  once !  I  hesitated,  Harry,  for  I 
was  frightened  and  foolish.  But  I  say  to 
you  now  that  I  will  marry  you  when  and 

17 


258  MARUJA. 

where  you  like  —  for  I  love  you,  Harry,  and 
you  alone." 

"  Then  let  us  go  at  once,"  he  said,  pas- 
sionately seizing  her;  "we  can  reach  the 
road  by  the  Canada  before  assistance  comes 
—  before  we  are  discovered.  Come !  " 

"  And  you  will  remember  in  the  years  to 
come,  Harry,"  she  said,  still  composedly,  and 
with  her  arms  still  around  his  neck,  "  that  I 
never  loved  any  but  you  —  that  I  never  knew 
what  love  was  before,  and  that  since  I  have 
loved  you  —  I  have  never  thought  of  any 
other.  Will  you  not?" 

"  I  will  —  and  now  "  — 

"And  now,"  she  said,  with  a  superb 
gesture  towards  the  barrier  which  separated 
them  from  Carroll,  "  OPEN  THE  DOOR  !  " 


CHAPTER   XIII. 

WITH  a  swift  glance  of  admiration  at 
Maruja,  Guest  flung  open  the  door.  The 
hastily-summoned  servants  were  already 
bearing  away  the  madman,  exhausted  by  his 
efforts.  Captain  Carroll  alone  remained 
there,  erect  and  motionless,  before  the 
threshold. 

At  a  sign  from  Maruja,  he  entered  the 
room.  In  the  flash  of  light  made  by  the 
opening  door,  he  had  been  perfectly  con- 
scious of  her  companion,  but  not  a  motion 
of  his  eye  or  the  movement  of  a  muscle  of 
his  face  betrayed  it.  The  trained  discipline 
of  his  youth  stood  him  in  good  service,  and 
for  the  moment  left  him  master  of  the  sit- 
uation. 

"  I  think  no  apology  is  needed  for  this 
intrusion,"  he  said,  with  cool  composure. 


260  MARUJA. 

"  Pereo  seemed  intent  on  murdering  some- 
body or  something,  and  I  followed  him  here. 
I  suppose  I  might  have  got  him  away  more 
quietly,  but  I  was  afraid  you  might  have 
thoughtlessly  opened  the  door."  He  stopped, 
and  added,  "  I  see  now  how  unfounded  was 
the  supposition." 

It  was  a  fatal  addition.  In  the  next  in- 
stant, the  Maruja  who  had  been  standing 
beside  Guest,  conscious-stricken  and  remorse- 
ful in  the  presence  of  the  man  she  had  de- 
ceived, and  calmly  awaiting  her  punishment, 
changed  at  this  luckless  exhibition  of  her 
own  peculiar  womanly  weapons.  The  old 
Maruja,  supreme,  ready,  undaunted,  and  pas- 
sionless, returned  to  the  fray. 

"You  were  wrong,  Captain,"  she  said, 
sweetly ;  "  fortunately,  Mr.  Guest  —  whom 
I  see  you  have  forgotten  in  your  absence  — 
was  with  me,  and  I  think  would  have  felt  it 
his  duty  to  have  protected  me.  But  I  thank 
you  all  the  same,  and  I  think  even  Mr. 
Guest  will  not  allow  his  envy  of  your  good 


MARUJA.  261 

fortune  in  coming  so  gallantly  to  my  rescue 
to  prevent  his  appreciating  its  full  value.  I 
am  only  sorry  that  on  your  return  to  La 
Mision  Perdida  you  should  have  fallen  into 
the  arms  of  a  madman  before  extending 
your  hands  to  your  friends." 

Their  eyes  met.  She  saw  that  he  hated 
her  —  and  felt  relieved. 

"  It  may  not  have  been  so  entirely  unfor- 
tunate," he  said,  with  a  coldness  strongly  in 
contrast  with  his  gradually  blazing  eyes, 
"  for  I  was  charged  with  a  message  to  you, 
in  which  this  madman  is  supposed  by  some 
to  play  an  important  part." 

44  Is  it  a  matter  of  business  ? "  said  Ma- 
ruja,  lightly,  yet  with  a  sudden  instinctive 
premonition  of  coming  evil  in  the  relentless 
tones  of  his  voice. 

"  It  is  business,  Miss  Saltonstall  —  purely 
and  simply  business,"  said  Carroll,  dryly, 
"under  whatever  other  name  it  may  have 
been  since  presented  to  you." 

"  Perhaps  you  have  no  objection  to  tell  it 


262  MARUJA. 

before  Mr.  Guest,"  said  Maruja,  with  an  in- 
spiration of  audacity ;  "  it  sounds  so  mysteri- 
ous that  it  must  be  interesting.  Otherwise, 
Captain  Carroll,  who  abhors  business,  would 
not  have  undertaken  it  with  more  than  his 
usual  enthusiasm." 

"  As  the  business  does  interest  Mr.  Guest, 
or  Mr.  West,  or  whatever  name  he  may  have 
decided  upon  since  I  had  the  pleasure  of 
meeting  him,"  said  Carroll  —  for  the  first 
time  striking  fire  from  the  eyes  of  his  rival 
—  "I  see  no  reason  why  I  should  not,  even 
at  the  risk  of  telling  you  what  you  already 
know.  Briefly,  then,  Mr.  Prince  charged 
me  to  advise  you  and  your  mother  to  avoid 
litigation  with  this  gentleman,  and  admit  his 
claim,  as  the  son  of  Dr.  West,  to  his  share 
of  the  property." 

The  utter  consternation  and  bewilderment 
shown  in  the  face  of  Maruja  convinced  Car- 
roll of  his  fatal  error.  She  had  received  the 
addresses  of  this  man  without  knowing  his 
real  position!  The  wild  theory  that  had 


MARUJA.  263 

seemed  to  justify  his  resentment  —  that  she 
had  sold  herself  to  Guest  to  possess  the 
property  —  now  recoiled  upon  him  in  its  ut- 
ter baseness.  She  had  loved  Guest  for  him- 
self alone;  by  this  base  revelation  he  had 
helped  to  throw  her  into  his  arms. 

But  he  did  not  even  yet  know  Maruja. 
Turning  to  Guest,  with  flashing  eyes,  she 
said,  "Is  it  true  —  are  you  the  son  of  Dr. 
West,  and  "  —  she  hesitated  — "  kept  out  of 
your  inheritance  by  us?" 

"  I  am  the  son  of  Dr.  West,"  he  said, 
earnestly,  "  though  I  alone  had  the  right  to 
tell  you  that  at  the  proper  time  and  occasion. 
Believe  me  that  I  have  given  no  one  the 
right — least  of  all  any  tool  of  Prince — to 
trade  upon  it." 

"  Then,"  said  Carroll,  fiercely,  forgetting 
everything  in  his  anger,  "  perhaps  you  will 
disclaim  before  this  young  lady  the  charge 
made  by  your  employer  that  Pereo  was 
instigated  to  Dr.  West's  murder  by  her 
mother  ?  " 


264  MARUJA. 

Again  he  had  overshot  the  mark.  The 
horror  and  indignation  depicted  in  Guest's 
face  was  too  plainly  visible  to  Maruja,  as  well 
as  himself,  to  permit  a  doubt  that  the  idea 
was  as  new  as  the  accusation.  Forgetting 
her  bewilderment  at  these  revelations,  her 
wounded  pride,  a  torturing  doubt  suggested 
by  Guest's  want  of  confidence  in  her  —  in- 
deed everything  but  the  outraged  feelings 
of  her  lover,  she  flew  to  his  side.  "  Not  a 
word,"  she  said,  proudly,  lifting  her  little 
hand  before  his  darkening  face.  "  Do  not 
insult  me  by  replying  to  such  an  accusation 
in  my  presence.  Captain  Carroll,"  she  con- 
tinued, turning  towards  him,  "  I  cannot  for- 
get that  you  were  introduced  into  my  moth- 
er's house  as  an  officer  and  a  gentleman. 
When  you  return  to  it  as  such,  and  not  as  a 
man  of  business,  you  will  be  welcome.  Un- 
til then,  farewell !  " 

She  remained  standing,  erect  and  passion- 
less, as  Carroll,  with  a  cold  salutation, 
stepped  back  and  disappeared  in  the  dark- 


MARUJA.  265 

ness ;  and  then  she  turned,  and,  with  totter- 
ing step  and  a  little  cry,  fell  upon  Guest's 
breast.  "  O  Harry  —  Harry  !  —  why  have 
you  deceived  me !  " 

"  I  thought  it  for  the  best,  darling,"  he 
said,  lifting  her  face  to  his.  "  You  know 
now  the  prospect  I  spoke  of  —  the  hope  that 
buoyed  me  up  !  I  wanted  to  win  you  myself 
alone,  without  appealing  to  your  sense  of 
justice  or  even  your  sympathies  !  I  did  win 
you.  God  knows,  if  I  had  not,  you  would 
never  have  learned  through  me  that  a  son  of 
Dr.  West  had  ever  lived.  But  that  was  not 
enough.  When  I  found  that  I  could  estab- 
lish my  right  to  my  father's  property,  I 
wanted  you  to  marry  me  before  you  knew 
it ;  so  that  it  never  could  be  said  that  you 
were  influenced  by  anything  but  love  for  me. 
That  was  why  I  came  here  to-day.  That 
was  why  I  pressed  you  to  fly  with  me !  " 

He  ceased.  She  was  fumbling  with  the 
buttons  of  his  waistcoat.  "  Harry,"  she  said, 
softly,  "  did  you  think  of  the  property  when 


266  MARUJA. 

—  when — you  kissed  me  in  the  conserva- 
tory?" 

"  I  thought  of  nothing  but  you"  he  an- 
swered, tenderly. 

Suddenly  she  started  from  his  embrace. 
"  But  Pereo  !  —  Harry  —  tell  me  quick  —  no 
one  —  nobody  can  think  that  this  poor  de- 
mented old  man  could  —  that  Dr.  West  was 

—  that  —  it 's  all  a  trick  —  is  n't  it  ?    Harry 

—  speak ! " 

He  was  silent  for  a  moment,  and  then 
said,  gravely,  "  There  were  strange  men  at 
the  f onda  that  night,  and  —  my  father  was 
supposed  to  carry  money  with  him.  My 
own  life  was  attempted  at  the  Mision  the 
same  evening  for  the  sake  of  some  paltry 
gold  pieces  that  I  had  imprudently  shown. 
I  was  saved  solely  by  the  interference  of  one 
man.  That  man  was  Pereo,  your  mayor- 
domo !  " 

She  seized  his  hand  and  raised  it  joyfully 
to  her  lips.  "  Thank  you  for  those  words  ! 
And  you  will  come  to  him  with  me  at  once ; 


MARUJA.  267 

and  he  will  recognize  you ;  and  we  will 
laugh  at  those  lies  ;  won't  we,  Harry  ?  " 

He  did  not  reply.  Perhaps  he  was  listen- 
ing to  a  confused  sound  of  voices  rapidly 
approaching  the  cottage.  Together  they 
stepped  out  into  the  gathering  night.  A 
number  of  figures  were  coming  towards 
them,  among  them  Faquita,  who  ran  a  little 
ahead  to  meet  her  mistress. 

"  Oh,  Dona  Maruja,  he  has  escaped !  " 

"  Who  ?     Not  Pereo  !  " 

"  Truly.  And  on  his  horse.  It  was  sad- 
dled and  bridled  in  the  stable  all  day.  One 
knew  it  not.  He  was  walking  like  a  cat, 
when  suddenly  he  parted  the  peons  around 
him,  like  grain  before  a  mad  bull  —  and 
behold !  he  was  on  the  pinto' s  back  and 
away.  And,  alas !  there  is  no  horse  that 
can  keep  up  with  the  pinto.  God  grant  he 
may  not  get  in  the  way  of  the  r-r-railroad, 
that,  in  his  very  madness,  he  will  even  des- 
pise." 

"  My  own  horse  is  in  the  thicket,"  whis- 


268  MARUJA. 

pered  Guest,  hurriedly,  in  Maruja's  ear. 
"  I  have  measured  him  with  the  pinto  before 
now.  Give'  me  your  blessing,  and  I  will 
bring  him  back  if  he  be  alive." 

She  pressed  his  hand  and  said,  "  Go." 
Before  the  astonished  servants  could  identify 
the  strange  escort  of  their  mistress,  he  was 
gone. 

It  was  already  quite  dark.  To  any  but 
Guest,  who  had  made  the  topography  of  La 
Mision  Perdida  a  practical  study,  and  who 
had  known  the  habitual  circuit  of  the  mayor- 
domo  in  his  efforts  to  avoid  him,  the  search 
would  have  been  hopeless.  But,  rightly  con- 
jecturing that  he  would  in  his  demented 
condition  follow  the  force  of  habit,  he 
spurred  his  horse  along  the  high-road  until 
he  reached  the  lane  leading  to  the  grassy 
amphitheatre  already  described,  which  was 
once  his  favorite  resort.  Since  then  it  had 
participated  in  the  terrible  transformation 
already  wrought  in  the  valley  by  the  rail- 
road. A  deep  cutting  through  one  of  the 


MARUJA.  269 

grassy  hills  had  been  made  for  the  line 
that  now  crossed  the  lower  arc  of  the  am- 
phitheatre. 

His  conjecture  was  justified  on  entering  it 
by  the  appearance  of  a  shadowy  horseman 
in  full  career  round  the  circle,  and  he  had 
no  difficulty  in  recognizing  Pereo.  As  there 
was  no  other  exit  than  the  one  by  which  he 
came,  the  other  being  inaccessible  by  reason 
of  the  railroad  track,  he  calmly  watched 
him  twice  make  the  circuit  of  the  arena, 
ready  to  ride  towards  him  when  he  showed 
symptoms  of  slackening  his  speed. 

Suddenly  he  became  aware  of  some  strange 
exercise  on  the  part  of  the  mysterious  rider ; 
and,  as  he  swept  by  on  the  nearer  side  of  the 
circle,  he  saw  that  he  was  throwing  a  lasso ! 
A  horrible  thought  that  he  was  witnessing  an 
insane  rehearsal  of  the  murder  of  his  father 
flashed  across  his  mind. 

A  far-off  whistle  from  the  distant  woods 
recalled  him  to  his  calmer  senses  at  the  same 
moment  that  it  seemed  also  to  check  the 


270  MARUJA. 

evolutions  of  the  furious  rider.  Guest  felt 
confident  that  the  wretched  man  could  not 
escape  him  now.  It  was  the  approaching 
train,  whose  appearance  would  undoubtedly 
frighten  Pereo  toward  the  entrance  of  the 
little  valley  guarded  by  him.  The  hill-side 
was  already  alive  with  the  clattering  echoes 
of  the  oncoming  monster,  when,  to  his  hor- 
ror, he  saw  the  madman  advancing  rapid- 
ly towards  the  cutting.  He  put  spurs  to 
his  horse,  and  started  in  pursuit ;  but  the 
train  was  already  emerging  from  the  narrow 
passage,  followed  by  the  furious  rider,  who 
had  wheeled  abreast  of  the  engine,  and  was, 
for  a  moment  or  two,  madly  keeping  up  with 
it.  Guest  shouted  to  him,  but  his  voice  was 
lost  in  the  roar  of  the  rushing  caravan. 

Something  seemed  to  fly  from  Pereo's 
hand.  The  next  moment  the  train  had 
passed ;  rider  and  horse,  crushed  and  bat- 
tered out  of  all  life,  were  rolling  in  the  ditch, 
while  the  murderer's  empty  saddle  dangled 
at  the  end  of  a  lasso,  caught  on  the  smoke- 


MARUJA.  271 

stack  of  one  of  the  murdered  man's  aveng- 
ing improvements ! 

The  marriage  of  Maruja  and  the  son  of 
the  late  Dr.  West  was  received  in  the  valley 
of  San  Antonio  as  one  of  the  most  admira- 
bly conceived  and  skillfully  matured  plans 
of  that  lamented  genius.  There  were  many 
who  were  ready  to  state  that  the  Doctor  had 
confided  it  to  them  years  before ;  and  it  was 
generally  accepted  that  the  widow  Salton- 
stall  had  been  simply  made  a  trustee  for  the 
benefit  of  the  prospective  young  couple. 
Only  one-  person,  perhaps,  did  not  entirely 
accept  these  views  ;  it  was  Mr.  James  Prince 
—  otherwise  known  as  Aladdin.  In  later 
years,  he  is  said  to  have  stated  authoritative- 
ly "that  the  only  combination  in  business 
that  was  uncertain  —  was  man  and  woman." 

THE  END. 


FAC.UTV 


Harte  - 


1829  Maruja 


PS 

1829 

M36 


B  000014200  o 


